Prostitution
The hinterlands of the colonies, when the frontier was but a few hundred miles from the coastline, were self-governed by necessity, with colonial authority mostly concerned with the collection of taxes and rents, and the suppression of Indian attacks. Within these smaller communities, the issue of prostitution was limited because everyone knew everyone else, and the communities often didn’t tolerate such things. But it did exist. In York County Virginia, which although the small city of Williamsburg abutted it was largely rural, the Grand Jury met twice each year, and charges of prostitution were common.
Women working as prostitutes were usually charged with the offense of fornication, and typical punishments included fines and whippings, held in public, on “…her bareback laid well on.” The idea of a public lashing of a semi-nude woman obviously did not appear unseemly to the court. There were charges in several of the colonies of inns and taverns operating as “disorderly houses” – a term which sometimes indicated a bordello, and for which the records show punishments in the form of fines.
America’s larger towns were along the coasts, and they operated ports. The seaports developed a bustling trade, and the coastal towns were hosts to sailors from other American towns and from around the world, as British ships were often crewed with men of all nations and races. In the towns, a bustling trade in prostitution developed, even in still Puritanical Boston, and the absence of police vice squads placed enforcement of the laws in the hands of moral authority. Churches solicited information about prostitutes to hand over to the courts.
Brothels were present in all of the larger cities, and their presence was hardly a secret. A portion of Philadelphia, then the largest city in America, was known as Hell Town. It hosted several brothels and although the idea of them being marked with a red light had not yet taken hold, their location was easy to learn from past patrons. Some brothels were specifically for the more genteel members of Philadelphia society, where discretion could be had, cards could be played, good wine could be sipped, and the entertaining ladies were ensured to be free of venereal disease.
Streetwalkers plied the streets nearer the wharves and warehouses, where business could be transacted quickly in an alley or dark corner. They often were accompanied surreptitiously by cohorts who would then rob her customer of any remaining money before dumping him in the water. The streetwalkers and the transient sailors contributed significantly to the rise of venereal disease in the colonies, especially the disease which was called the Great Pox – syphilis.
