The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World

by William W. Sanger

“Doctor William W. Sanger:

“Dear Sir,—I received your letter asking me to express in writing my estimate of the whole number of known public prostitutes in the city of New York. In the absence of any law compelling the registering of public prostitutes, it would be very difficult to testify with accuracy to the exact number of such persons in the city. I have no hesitancy in stating that, in my opinion, they do not number over five thousand persons, if indeed they reach so high a figure. Having been engaged in public life for many years, my opinion is based on the observations made by me from time to time, and from various official reports made to me.

“You are at liberty to make such use of this answer to your interrogatory as you may deem proper.

“Very respectfully yours,
“Geo. W. Matsell, Chief of Police.”

This communication, in addition to the facts gleaned from other sources, was amply sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the known public prostitutes in New York did not exceed five thousand in number at the close of the year 1856. Then ensued the summer, with its artificial inflation—that false prosperity which excites unbounded hopes and stimulates to measureless extravagance, followed by the revulsion and panic of the fall and winter. Trade was literally dead: operatives, never too well paid, were threatened with starvation; females, particularly, felt the rigid pressure of the times. In many families the embarrassments of the fathers compelled a reduction of the servants employed, and a large number of domestics were added to the aggregate of that class already out of situations. The occupations of the army of seamstresses, dress-makers, milliners, and tailoresses were suspended, and their struggles for bread were merged in the general cry for labor. It was, in short, a trying time alike for the sufferers and the observers. But one resort seemed available; the poor workless, houseless, foodless woman must have recourse to prostitution as a means of preserving life.

As usual in any time of great excitement, surmise ran actually wild as to the extent of the consequences, and extravagant theories abounded; one gentleman actually stating in a public meeting that a thousand virtuous girls were becoming prostitutes every week through sheer starvation! An assertion so appalling as this is its own refutation. It assumes that one woman in every hundred of the female population of New York City, between the ages of fifteen and thirty years, became a prostitute every week; and therefore, during the six months of fall and winter, twenty-six thousand women, one fourth of the inhabitants of the ages named, one in every four of all the women under middle age, would have been forced into vice! The practice of “jumping at conclusions” upon serious matters like this is much to be reprehended. An exaggerated statement made in the fervor of enthusiasm, while advocating a benevolent object, must always recoil to the injury of the cause it is intended to promote. It will be necessary only to consider for a moment the financial condition of New York to be convinced that such an increase of prostitution was impossible. It can not be denied that the number of abandoned women is regulated by the demand; or that the only inducement which could lead virtuous girls to the course alleged must have been the necessity to earn money for subsistence. But this necessity to earn money was felt as strongly by men as by women. The revulsion for a time left a large portion of the community without resources. Merchants, manufacturers, and store-keepers found their receipts inadequate to meet their expenditures. Commercial employés, book-keepers, clerks, salesmen, and agents were discharged. Mechanics in every branch were without work, and consequently without wages. Merchants from other parts of the country had no money to meet their liabilities or make fresh purchases, and therefore did not visit the city as usual. These causes combined to reduce the business of houses of prostitution, and instead of large accessions to the ranks of courtesans, many of this very class were forced to seek a refuge in the public charitable institutions. Hence arose the increase in the denizens of Blackwell’s Island, where hospital, alms-house, work-house, and penitentiary were alike over-crowded. Some of the places vacated by these recipients of eleemosynary aid were doubtless filled by new recruits; but the supposition that a thousand were added every week would imply a change in the whole corps every six weeks, or a change nearly five times completed during the fall and winter.

That female virtue was yielded in many instances can not, unfortunately, be doubted, but the sufferers did not become public prostitutes. Poor creatures! they surrendered themselves unwillingly to some temporary acquaintance, probably in gratitude for assistance already rendered, or anticipating aid to be afforded. There is something truly melancholy in the consideration that bread had to be purchased at such a price; that the only alternative lay between voluntary dishonor and killing indigence. It is but charity to conclude that the woman who thus acted, if her subsequent course was not a continuous life of abandonment, was impelled by the stern necessity of the times rather than induced by a laxity of moral feeling. Unchaste as she must be admitted, she can scarcely be deemed a prostitute in the ordinary acceptation of the word.

It would be foolish to deny all increase of prostitution since the date of the correspondence just transcribed. The population of New York is now some thirty or forty thousand more than at that time, and female degradation has extended as a natural consequence. Relying upon the estimate of five thousand as correct at the time made, the subsequent augmentation of inhabitants would suppose an addition of about three hundred prostitutes, but to take the widest scope, and assume that the debasement required by hunger degenerated into a habit of confirmed vice, it may be admitted that the number of abandoned women in New York has increased from five thousand in 1856 to six thousand in 1858. This is a very liberal estimate, and the total assigned is certainly not too small. How much it may be in excess can not be said with precision, but in an argument of this nature it is safer to err in the direction of overstating an evil than to be lulled into false security by too flattering a representation.

The known public prostitutes of New York are thus presumed to amount to six thousand at the present day. But to this number exceptions might be taken. To secure farther accuracy, additional evidence was sought. In the month of May, 1858, the assistance of the Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners was requested, and, under the direction of its president (General James W. Nye), to whom our acknowledgments are respectfully tendered for his courtesy and aid, a list of queries was submitted to the Inspector of each Police precinct. Below is a copy of the circular, with a synopsis of the replies.

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