Overview

When a priest suggested to one of the first governors of Louisiana that he banish all disreputable women to raise the colonys moral tone, the governor responded, If I send away all the loose females, there will be no women left here at all. In Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women, Judith Kelleher Schafer uses case histories from the First District Court of New Orleans to tell the engrossing story of prostitution in the city prior to the Civil War. She ably details the brutal and often harrowing lives of the women and young girls who engaged in prostitution; and discusses the sexual exploitation of children, sex across the color line, and the citys feeble attempts to suppress the trade. She also profiles several infamous New Orleans sex workers, including Delia Swift, alias Bridget Fury, a flaming redhead with a fondness for stabbing men; and Emily Eubanks and her daughter Elisabeth, free women of color known for assaulting white women. Although scholars have written much about prostitution in New Orleans Storyville era, few historical studies on prostitution in antebellum New Orleans exist. Schafers rich analysis fills this gap and offers insight into an intriguing period in the history of the oldest profession in the Crescent City.

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