Choices for women. Women were in essence supposed to be 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. 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 starvati 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 lusts on their wiveser so respectful 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, their own seats in the theater. Houses of asingination or brothels were run and owned by women. They did, however, employ male surgeons and male bouncers, typically called fancy men. Hello, my name is craig hall, and today im representing the fancy man in this black woods establishment. The front for the establishment is a sewing service and letter writing service. Were basically portraying a camp house of asingination. 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 subtler, 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. 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 permitting or licensing this kind of activity. So as a result, what you have is a typical kind of brothel, which again, would be run by a woman. In this case, our hypothetical ms. Blackwood, and she basically comes out and she hires me as she said, a fancy man. We set it up like we would a brick and mortar house. Were in the middle of ought we call the parlor, where the gentlemen would come, and they would be entertained by me. Now, the other option or, im sorry, there other obligation i have is also as a security man. In other words, i provide security for the ladies, including ms. Blackwood. Im a former military man. I would in many cases be a, how should i say, a front for her or a go between, 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. The process would be that you would first of all get all of her customers all of her employees outside of myself, would go to the local army surgeon, and they would get a surgeons certificate. 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. Shes 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 servant 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 19th century social culture. Okay. The 19th century social culture, what is culture, what is the customary kind 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. In the 19th century 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 and south, but clearly, what happened there is that 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 unless, for adultery, unless he abandoned the tamallfamily and abandoned where the Family Structure was lost. Within that framework, that was her responsibility. As was ms. Blackwood or shery 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 sickles. In my mind, he is the 19th century kind of man. He obviously understood and was aware of probably all of the houses of assignation in Washington City and new york city. He was married at 33 to a 16yearold. Even though he was married to her, on one of his Diplomatic Missions to england, took along a prostitute from new york, famous fanny white, and introduced her to the queen as a new york socialite. So here is a man who basically was living the double standard. And of course, he was also a famous, not only for his faux pas here in the battle of gettysburg where he wound up losing a leg, but for 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 what you were doing and your sense of right and wrong and wouldnt you have thought tshot the man . Thats what i find the 12 men on the 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 an invalid corps, and in his letters, which have been published lately, he writes his wife that he met a gentleman who indicated that he had known his wife, and he was very cordial to the man, and he left, and he wrote her that he had 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 have tried 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 sickles, but yet, his concept of the marriage and his control and his role in it was very much like sickles and very much like the social culture of his time. So again,s 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 providing security, right behind ms. Blackwood, for example, is where i would set up, make sure all the men left their weapons and accoutrements outside the door, and even be comfortable. Take off your hat, take off your coat. Come on in, sit down, and over here, on this table, we have some of the accoutrements, if you will, of entertainment. We have liquid libations. We have 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 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 could even brush their teeth and 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 five cents in order to protect them from venereal disease. And of course, if on the other hand well, one of the other things he might do is also he might, an aphrodisiac in the term of oysters might help some of the gentlemen, and finally, we have hunters red drop, cure for the ills of mens nether region, which might be necessary in case they did acquire something. We also have some, how should we say, 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, 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 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 you could tell. Most women, number one, never left the house unescorted. Middle class women never left the house unescorted. They usually either had another woman, more typically another man with them. A lot of times you could tell if you knew what to look for, if you saw an unescorted woman. They also made direct eye contact with men they didnt know. That was another big midvictorian no no. You never approached a man you hadnt been introduced to in middleclass society. Typically, in a large city, in a large urban area, typical victorian prauostitute would wa 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. The modern equivalent of do you want to date is, are you sporting, sir . In terms of 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 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 months, 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, a victory for u. N. Forces which turned the tide early in the war. He also talks about the surprise chinese counterattack and intense combat at the battle of chosen reservoir where he was captured. Watch korean war oral histories tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern on cspan3. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on