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Just watched this documentary. Pretty eye opening on some things. New Orleans set aside a district for legal brothels and racial integration community. The brothels allowed white men to cross racial lines at the brothels, but not the other way around. Different religions used sex as part of their practice or for money generation (Catholic Church). In some places brothels even operated inside coal mines with cavities carved out in the mine. Many of the communities had brothels developed because of the extreme disproportionate numbers between men and women in the community. At the time single women had few choices available to them and so for some, working in a brothel was a better alternative. It was still horrible enough that some had bottles of poison to permanently escape the life. Some communities, like New York and New Orleans, even had a “gentlemen’s guid book” to advertise brothels, types of services available, and doctors to treat VD. While some communities had laws making prostitution illegal, people in authority not only looked the other way, some profited of the brothel. In some Wild West towns the brothels and madams funded community development. The treatment for VD and the makeup the prostitutes used for their beauty were either extremely painful and useless or deadly poison. Some makeup was thick with lead or arsenic. Condoms did exist in those times but they were made with sheep’s intestines and far more uncomfortable and unreliable than todays condoms. While brothels do still exist today they aren’t as numerous nor popular as in the past with the competition of escort services and online solicitations. Modern condoms and medication has greatly reduced the VD rate within legal brothels that strictly enforce the condom rule but accidents do happen.
In the south it was perfectly fine for a white man to sleep with a black women and prostitution was one way to do it. So long as the white guy(at least in public) didn't admit to it or marry the women or claim any children born out that act as his own. He could however talk about it with his close friends. New Orleans was not unique there. It was just unique for legal brothels.
But brothels were in varying degrees common in the past. In the west once enough married women were in an area the brothels were shut down as they would mount pressure against them.
Of course brothels have a long history in the US. Richmond, VA was notorious for them during the Civil War; the Richmond Dispatch (newspaper) regularly reported on arrests. For an interesting history of a madam in CO, read about Mattie Silks. There were few careers open to women, she made her money running a brothel.
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