Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West, 1865-90

by Anne M. Butler

They were called "frail sisters," "fallen angels," "filles de Joie," "soiled doves," "queens of the night," and "whores." They worked the seamy brothels, saloons, cribs, streets, and "hog ranches" of the American frontier. They were the prostitutes of the post-Civil War West.

Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery details the destitute lives of these nearly anonymous women. Anne Butler reveals who they were, how they lived and worked, and why they became an essential element in the development of the West's emerging institutions. Her story bears little resemblance to the popular depictions of prostitutes in film and fiction. Far removed from the glittering lives of dancehall girls, these women lived at the borders of society and the brink of despair.

Poor and uneducated, they faced a world where scarce jobs, paltry wages, and inflated prices made prostitution a likely if bitter choice of employment. At best their daily lives were characterized by a fierce economic competition and at worst by fatal violence at the hands of customers, co-workers, or themselves. They were scorned and attacked by the legal, military, church, and press establishments; nevertheless, as Butler shows, these same institutions also used prostitutes as a means for maintaining their authority and as a lure for economic development.

Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery is based on an enormous amount of research in more than twenty repositories in Wyoming, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas. Using census lists, police dockets, jail registers, military correspondence, trial testimony, inquests, court martials, newspapers, post returns, and cemetery records, Butler illuminates the dark corners of a dark profession and ads much to our knowledge of both western and women's history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sex Work, 19th Century, Westerns, American History

179 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1985

Reviews

[Brad Butturff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly one of the best researched books on the nature of and history of prostitution in the frontier west. Quite a few such books are simply the telling of the stories of individual women who were known to have engaged in prostitution at one time or another. Butler's book actually goes much more deeply into how these women and this trade fit into and effected the communities it was found in. There is actually a bit of information in it on Deadwood in particular.

These women were often abused and forced to the fringes of the society of the time but were still very much a part of the society of the time. The majority suffered separation from the 'polite' society of the time but were tightly bound with the economics of the time. These women still had regular lives to lead and would often shop at the same establishments of more 'respectable' women, they would often seek medical care from the same doctors serving the mainstream. They were very much a part of their communities.

Butler lays this all out very well along side the tragic aspects of frontier prostitution. Violence was often epidemic against these women. They also often suffered the health and hygienic problems of the day but with greater risks than women in more mainstream society. This was a way though that a woman could earn a living and quite often they would do this until they could find a way out of the profession. It's interesting to see how many would get married; a man would make an 'honest' woman out of them.

Let me just say this, the book is very well written, amazingly well researched for a subject not always readily researchable and provides the best hard information on the nature of prostitution in the frontier west. This is another book I have two copies of because I know I'll wear one out eventually.

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book I've found to cover the vice of Boise, Idaho - both prostitution and gambling. Extensively researched, this is a dark, unglamorous journey into the empty and isolated lives of the prostitutes of the American West. The author very convincingly sets forth her arguments as to why there was no such thing as friendship between prostitutes, the "heart of gold" is an isolated incident if not an entire myth, and she details how every segment of society exploited the prostitutes (military, civil, legal, etc.). She also looks at who the women were and why they ended up in the life, a life light on joy and heavy on misery.

[Eh?Eh! · Rating 2 out of 5]

EXTREMELY dry. It followed the classic essay formula in each chapter: Introduction where you begin with a broad statement and narrow down to your thesis sentence, 2+ supporting topics, restate your thesis. The supporting paragraphs were statistic tallies of her extensive research. It did convey how miserable these women's lives were, how few chances, how little opportunity, how awful.

[Ashley London · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a female lawyer, I found the chapter on the interaction of frontier prostitutes and the development of the legal system fascinating. While this is primarily an academic book, I recommend it for any feminist building his or her knowledge of the underprivileged women who navigated this country and its misogynistic underpinnings before us.

[Alex Milton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne M. Butler’s Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutions in the American West, 1865-90 builds a social history of nineteenth century prostitution in the American West. Although local and state governments attempted to regulate prostitution on the American frontier, local demand from overwhelmingly male populations alongside bribery hindered most attempts at banning the practice. Butler argues that struggles in regulating prostitution are indicative of weak local governments run by people largely inexperienced in criminal and legal administration. Her book relies heavily on extensive archival research into state criminal court records involving prostitution alongside newspaper articles. The book outlines the significant social isolation of prostitutes, whose personal struggles were overlooked by communities because of longstanding dehumanization. Women working as prostitutes in the American West often traveled from the Eastern United States because of limited financial opportunities and often experiences of domestic violence. Butler argues that prostitution remained highly radicalized, with brothels often segregated by race. Although Butler found that early reports of venereal disease in the American West were from brothels with white sex workers, non-white women, including Mexican American women and Native American were racialized as primary spreaders of sexually transmitted diseases. Her book provides a strong history of prostitution focused on unearthing the perspectives and experiences of workers, analyzing the intersection of race and class within the industry.

[Amber Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Factual and has a good deal of information but often dry and remote in tone. This book is more generalized--it talks about what kind of woman might end up as a prostitute, law, why prostitutes neither had hearts of gold and why they didn't support each other and get along.
One thing I'm curious about is how these women got out of prostitution. This information is scattered through the book, but I'd have liked a serious chapter just on that. This book discusses that many women died of violence, disease (STD's and not), suicide and the effects of squalor. The author states that of the women who married, it was seldom a way out as the men often just basically became a pimp to them. I'd heard from a number of sources including the Cozy Beds, a former bordello in Pendleton that there were some marriages what resulted in the women "going straight" successfully.
My feeling is this author is being slightly pessimistic in the success of frontier prostitutes marrying out, but that many of these women weren't all that stable (from temprament or their circumstances) so likely they weren't good judges of character or partners.
I'd have liked more information on how women got out of being frontier prostitutes. Some had to have been able to make some money, succeed enough to set up some kind of honest profession, or to find ways of going straight. What happened to women on the hog ranches who were too old or sick to even work there anymore? I just feel that the end of the trail/career for these women needs more exploration.

[Clementine Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent scholarly work with many black and white period photos. A must-read for western historical fiction writers--it gives a voice to the "forgotten woman" of the time. This is a part of my permanent hardback collection.

[Nancy Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an academic’s (historian) study of prostitution in the American West from about 1860 to 1890. One of the best-written academic books I’ve read and very revealing about a profession that’s been stereotyped and misunderstood.

[Robin Westover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting view of a woman's life in prostitution late 1800s.

[Brittany Kilcrease · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read as far as fact finding.

[Michele Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives a very analytical review of prostitution in the American West so individuals can understand the dynamic of the profession in its various aspects.

[Randi Samuelson-Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands Down one of the VERY BEST books on prostitution in the American West.

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unromantic but probably accurate view of prostitution in the American West. Will prove a huge disappointment to those who grew up loving Hollywood's version (which is true of most accurate books about the Old West, which was a lot poorer and desperate and dirtier than Hollywood usually admits). Reading this book is sort of like finding out that the stagecoach of Stagecoach would have had up to nine passengers crammed in there (with a bench in the middle and everyone's knees interlaced up front), or considerable packages stuffed in there if the passenger load was light.

Butler's more interested in the average prostitute of the era, on the grounds that most people are over-familiar with the rare success stories. Prostitutes who lived high or did well were usually women in mining areas where there were not many women, and a lot of suddenly rich men. While most western prostitutes were working in areas where women were very much in the minority, most of their clients were cowboys and common soldiers and the like -- men without much money -- and their lives were pretty dismal. Women had few options back then, and those who tried prostitution but didn't like it would have a hard time getting out of the life.

I've researched the times enough that there wasn't a lot new here for me, however she puts things together in ways I hadn't really thought of. I knew that towns charged prostitutes fees and things, and was vaguely aware that a lot of towns allowed prostitution for financial reasons, but had not realized just how much money some towns squeezed out of prostitution. Having all the specific fees and taxes and rents and things laid out this way is rather shocking. Also hadn't thought about the fact that so much of the legal system was fee for service, meaning that prostitutes were subsidizing their own harassment.

[Melanti]

I picked up three books on this subject from the library today.

This one is a bit dry and factual for my tastes. It definitely has value -- from a quick browse through the book, and reading a few sample chapters, it seems to not romanticize the subject and treats it in a more academic manor.

But the one woman who I really wanted to know more about is about as far from dry and academic as they come, and Butler only mentioned her once in a footnote.

So, unfortunately, it's not the book for me at the moment. I might return and finish it if I ever develop a real interest in the subject as a whole instead of one particular woman.

[Clint Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as research for a Practice of History thesis about the women's culture in Post-Civil War American West.I used Prostitutes as an extreme control. The book was very informative an gave me lots of qoutes. It also occasionally took a Social history aproach and discussed the forces that pushed those women into that lifestyle. However, I thought the author was a bit harsh and biased in regrads to judging the morality and responsibility of the women. He seemed intent of dispelling the "Mrs. Kitty myth".

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read about prostitutes of the West. They were needed in the West so men could mine and ranch because there was not a lot of women in the West. However I feel bad that they had to do this for their occupation because they were not tolerated well in society and they were often poor and the men treated them badly also.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures are fantastic, the primary source material is fascinating, but the book itself is deeply flawed and frustrating: the unsupported generalizations, the implicit but unexamined moral framework imposed by the author, the failure to define terms or produce a sufficiently theorized conceptual model . . .

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book to anyone interested in prostitution in the Old West. It's an academic work, albeit a flawed one. The four stars comes as I haven't been able to locate anything as comprehensive.

[Jennifer Kincheloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and helpful for researching for my book, "The Secret Life of Anna Blanc," an homage to old Los Angeles inspired by Alice Stebin Wells, an LAPD police matron, who in 1910, became the first woman in the Western world to be granted police powers.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather dreary look at prostitution in the west. Lots of lurid and exciting stories, and Butler does not spare any gruesome details. Not the best book, but not the worst either.

[Jeff]

One of the very few books on prostitution in the West. Most books on the subject sugar coat and romanticize the life of the prostitute.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

[Susan Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

A scholarly work.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent research.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful in-depth information.

[Cws]

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