About victorianera marriage expectations and civil war brothels. My name is cheryl williams, and im portraying today at the reenactment what it would have been like to have been a victorian prostitute. At the time of the american civil war, which was at the midsmack victorian period, there were very, very few choices for women. Women were in essence supposed possible the pillar of the household, the center of the family. Were talking about middleclass women. So, without any means of support, you had very few choices. You could be a domestic servant. You could be a laundress, or you could work in a factory. At the time of the civil war, there was a spike in widowhood, meaning that, all of a sudden, middleclass women didnt really have any visible means of support. Now, we saw this more in the south than in the north because the war was fought mainly in the south. So, these women would become prostitutes. It was not an attractive choice. It was certainly not their first choice, but between that and starvation, thats what they did. Now, at the time of the victorian era, prostitutes actually had their place in society. At that time, it was considered illbred, in poor taste, for middleclass men to visit their carnal lust on their wives. So, respectable women, while they may not have liked it, understood that thats what men did. Respectable women were not supposed to enjoy Sexual Congress with their husbands. Victorian prostitutes had their own benches in the park, in their own seats in the theater. Houses of asignation or brothels were actually run and owned by women. They did, however, employ male surgeons and male bouncers, typically called fancymen. Hello. My name is craig hall, and today im representing the fancyman in miss blackwoods establishment. The front for the establishment is a sewing service and letterwriting service. Were basically portraying a camp house of assignation. We dont have a bricksandmortar house. In many cases, the prostitutes work out of a house in a local town or some of the larger cities, but here at gettysburg, were portraying one that would have been theoretically organized and near a camp. So for example, if you had a large camp of soldiers, and within about two football fields, you would have, for example, another civilian business, the sutler, okay . Which was licensed by the army to sell civilian and other supplies to the soldiers. Well, in our scenario, were hypothetically assuming that we would also, like the army in the west, would have licensed a brothel, a house of assignation in a camp style. And so, we have a front, if you will, of the sewing service to keep a low profile. Because if, in fact, it would be licensed, like the army experimented with licensing prostitutes in some of the western towns during the war, you dont want the criticism of the local community of perm permitting or licensing this kind of activity. So, as a result, what you had is a typical kind of brothel, which, again, would be run by a woman, in this case, our hypothetical miss blackwood. And she basically comes out and she hires me, as she said, a fancyman. We set it up like we would a bricksandmortar house. Were in the middle of what we call the parlor, okay . This is where the gentlemen would come. And they would be entertained by me. Now, the other option or im sorry, the other obligation i have is also as a security man. In other words, i provide security for the ladies, including miss blackwood. Im a former military man. I would, in many cases, be a, how should we say, an affront for her, or a gobetween, between the men of society, in this case, the commander since im a former army person, i can go to them and help negotiate the establishment of the business near the camp. And theyre more likely to deal with me than ms. Blackwood. And of course, the licensing process that they had was very much like the experiment, or what we propose, very much like the experiment that was conducted out west by the army, to reduce the amount of venereal disease amongst the troops. So, the process would be that you would, first of all, get all of her customers i mean, all of her employees, outside of myself, would go to the local army surgeon, and they would get a surgeon certificate. Now, in this case, this is ms. Blackwoods certificate. And then, after everyone basically got a clean bill of health with a certificate, she would then go to the Provost Marshal and obtain a license to run her business. Now, as i said, what we then do is we set it up. She has been in the business, presumably, for some time. Our hypothetical scenario is that she suggested she came from the south. She lost her husband, she lost her father. She had no support. And so, she went into the business because it was the most lucrative option amongst all the other ones yes. Like washer women, laundresses, domestic service, working in a factory, be it to make cartridges or to make textiles. She could the possibility of being a domestic service, or even a nurse, for example. Now, all of these other options, of course, were outside of the family. Because what were really talking about here is were describing the entree of the 19thcentury social culture. Okay . 19thcentury social culture. What is culture . Its the customary kinds of traits, ideals, and beliefs of, be they racial groups, religious groups, or social groups. And of course, the biggest social group is one involving gender men and women. And in the 19thcentury society, the family was the most important vehicle, the most important social vehicle. And in that family, the role of the woman was to have children, to raise those children, and to manage the household. And outside of that, she was given financial security. But there was, in a sense, a certain kind of double standard. An interesting example of this, for example, i find, is in a book that was i think it was called the houses divided. It was a number of historical vignettes. And one that was very interesting was about the divorce laws in north carolina. Now, were not pretending, of course, that all states had the same kind of laws or all treated men the same way, be it north or south. But, clearly, what happened there is its a reflection of the double standard of the time. So, for example, a man could divorce his wife, if she committed adultery. But the woman could not divorce her husband for adultery, unless he abandoned the family and he abandoned her, where the Family Structure was lost. Within that framework, that was her responsibility, as ms. Blackwood, or sheryl here, indicated to you, the idea of men finding physical release outside of the family was not uncommon. One of the as we always say here in ms. Blackwoods, one of our most pervasive and famous customers is pictured back here on the wall, general sickels. In my mind, he is the 19th century kind of a man. He obviously understood and was aware of probably all of the houses of assignation in new york city and washington city. He was married at 33 to a 16yearold. But even though he was married to her, he went on one of his Diplomatic Missions to england, took along a prostitute from new york, famous fannie white, and introduced her to the queen as a new york socialite. So, here was a man who basically was living the double standard. And of course, he was also famous not only for his faux pas here in the battle of gettysburg, where he wound up losing a leg, but for a famous trial in which he determined that his wife was having an affair. The double standard took effect. He saw the man. The man actually happened to be the son of Francis Scott key, and he was a district of columbia lawyer. He saw the man outside of his house. He went, he got a number of pistols. He went out and shot the man a number of times. He was tried, and part of his fame is that he was found not guilty on the defense of temporary insanity. In my mind, and i think many historians would agree with me, it wasnt necessarily that those 12 men on that jury understood the semblance of a psychological defense or a psychological condition. What they saw is there were 12 men who understood the marriage. And they understood that the marriage was invoked, it was intruded upon by this man. And they probably made the plea that, wouldnt you as well lose track of who you were and where you were doing it and your sense of right and wrong, and wouldnt you have shot the man . And so, thats, in fact, what i find that those 12 men on that jury found him not guilty. And hes not necessarily the only character that portrays this kind of scenario. For example, another individual, a soldier as well, his name was colonel johnson. He was in the invalid corps. And in his papers published recently, he writes his wife that he med mt a gentleman who indicated he had met his wife. And he was very cordial to him and he left. And he wrote her that he met the man and she then responded by saying, well, this gentleman, yes, she had met him, but he took the prerogative to attempt to kiss her. And when his colonel johnson found out about this, he wrote back to his wife that he didnt think the man was a gentleman, and any gentleman that would try to kiss his wife, if he had known when he met him, he would have taken out his pistol and shot him on the spot. And so, there we have a man who is not anywhere like, if you will, general sickels, but yet, his concept of the marriage and his control and his role in it was very much like sickels and very much like i think the social culture of this time. So, like we said, back to this is the culture, this is the scenario. Were setting this up like in any house. You would have a social Gathering Place where gentlemen would come, waiting for services to be provided. My obligation after i provide security, now, right behind ms. Blackwood, for example, is where i would set up, make sure all the men left their weapons and acuedments outside the door. And even be comfortable. Take off your hat. Take off your coat. Come on in. Sit down. And then over here on this table, we have some of the acud increments, if you will, of entertainment. We have liquid libations, reading materials, we have gaming materials and all kinds of other things to keep the men entertained. And on this table, we have some of the goods that we might be providing to the soldiers. Some of them are goods they might need before the services are provided, some during the services, and some subsequent to the service. For example, we have hygienic wipes. We have different kinds of soap. And of course, the gentlemen that could even brush their teeth and even wash up over here behind me with the wash basin. Of course, each lady is going to demand that he acquire at least one french letter for 4 or 5 cents, in order to protect them from venereal disease. And then, of course, if, on the other hand, he does acquire it well, one of the other things he might do is also he might, an aphrodisiac, in the terms of wasters might help some of the gentlemen. And then finally, we have hunters red drop, cure for the ills of men oos nether region, which might be necessary in case they did acquire something. We also have some, how shall we say, french postcards or pictures, as well as the books on the table, all of which some would complain as being pornographic, some not. And pornography became an issue in the 19th century in the war because, again, like prostitution, it was a market that was prolific. You had more men gathering together and young men, of course, with lots of testosterone, looking for some kind of relief. They would then negotiate with ms. Blackwood. She would take the money for the services. She would assign one of her employees, one of the ladies to the gentleman. And they would retire, if you will, to her tent, where services would be performed. In terms of appearance, when talking about victorian prostitutes specifically, i have to say, we kind of have to leave the hollywood image behind, not because it isnt interesting, but because its just not entirely accurate. Victorian prostitutes, basically, ran under the radar. They really looked just like anybody else. There were subtle, nonverbal ways that you could tell. Most women, number one, never left the house unescorted. Middle class women never left the house unescorted. They always usually had either another woman, more typically another man with them. So, a lot of times, you could tell, if you knew what to look for, if you saw an unescorted woman. Victorian prostitutes also made direct eye contact with men that they didnt know. That was another big midvictorian nono. You never did that. You never approached a man you hadnt been introduced to in middleclass society. So, typically, in a large city, in a large, urban area, typical victorian prostitute would walk down the street, usually by herself, make eye contact with a man, turn this way, maybe the other way, who knows . Human nature never changes. One of the things they would say is, its the modern equivalent of do you want to date is, are you sporting, sir . And these were various ways these women were able to blend in. And in terms of during war time, in a military camp, like i said, typically, they would sort of be camped outside of the encampment. They would follow the army and be sort of entrenched with them, typically in like winter quarters, where the soldiers would have plenty of time on their hands and plenty of money to spend. You can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website, cspan. Org history. Weeknights this month, were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight at 8 00 eastern, a look at korean war oral histories. Veteran carl house recounts his part in the Amphibious Landing at inchon, a victory for u. N. Forces, which turned the tide early in the war. He also talks about the surprise chinese