The Dark History of Prostitution: From The Sumerians to North America

Welcome to the Strange History Podcast, where we talk about the weird, the wonderful, and the strange history that has shaped us into who we are today. This show is part of the darkcast podcast network and thanks to the Weird Darkness Podcasts for the shout out last week. We truly appreciate it. Give Weird Darkness a listen if you have not already. We love weird around here. Okay, Heathens, I recently did an episode called From Prostitution to Piracy, and some of you thought it was going to be all about hookers, while some of you went away sad.

So I'm here to tell you that today's show is all about hookers and Charlatan's. You're about to learn more about prostitution than you ever imagined. And if they create a trivia game about hookers, you guys will win hands down. So let's dive into it. The earliest account of prostitution can be found in the list of occupations included in the Sumerian records dating back to twenty four hundred BC. These describe a temple brothel operated by Samarian priests in the city of Europe. This temple was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar and was the home of three grades of women.

The first grade of women was only permitted to perform sexual rituals in the temple. The second group had access to the grounds and catered to visitors, and the third and lowest class lived on the temple grounds. Third class was also free to find customers in the streets. We can call them corner hose. In the neighboring Babylon. The legal rights of a prostitute recorded in Hammarabi's Code. The Hammarabie Code of Laws is a collection of two hundred and eighty two rules that the Babylonians lived by.

The Hammarabie Code of Laws established a standard for commercial interactions and set finds and punishments to meet the requirements of justice. Hammarabi's Code was carved onto a massive finger shaped black stone pillar that was looted by invaders and finally rediscovered in nineteen oh one. It is one of the most famous examples of the ancient law of retribution, a form of retaliatory justice commonly associated with the saying an eye for an eye. Under this system, if a man broke the bone of one of his equals, his own bone would be broken In return.

It lists out specifically what rights prostitutes had when it came to what they owned. In the region of Canaan, a significant portion of temple prostitutes were male. This was also widely practiced in Sardinia and in some of the Phoenician cultures, usually in honor of the goddess Ashtart. This would explain why when I was a teenager and put on too much makeup, my mother would often say, go wash your face. You look like a tart. And here I thought I resembled a pastry, but I digress. Presumably under the influence of Phoenicians, this practice was developed in other ports of the Mediterranean Sea.

Also in later years, sacred prostitution and similar classifications for females were known to have existed in Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan. Such practices came to an end when the Emperor Constantine destroyed the goddess temples and replaced the religious practices with Christianity. Church ladies strike again. The prostitution was commonplace in ancient Israel. There are a number of references to prostitution in the Hebrew Bible. The biblical story of Judah and Tamar provides a depiction of prostitution being practiced in that time period.

In this story, the prostitute waits the side of a highway for travelers. She covers her face in order to identify herself as a prostitute. Instead of being paid money, she asks for a kid goat. This would have been the equivalent of a high price, showing that only the wealthy owner of numerous herds could have afforded to pay for a single sexual encounter. Under the system, if the traveler does not have his cattle with him, he must give valuables to the woman as a deposit until a kid goat is delivered to her.

The woman in the story not a legitimate prostitute, but actually was Judah's widowed daughter in law who sought to trick Judah into impregnating her. However, since she succeeded in personating a prostitute, her conduct can be assumed to be accurately represented in the behavior of a prostitute in society during that time period. In later Biblical story found in the Book of Joshua, a prostitute in Jericho named Rahab assisted Israelite spies by providing them with information regarding the current socio cultural and military situation.

Rahab was knowledgeable in these matters because her popularity with the high ranking nobles. The Israelite spies, in return for this information, promised to save her and her family during the planned military invasion. Only if she kept the details of her contact with them a secret. She would leave a sign on her residence that indicated to the advancing soldiers not to attack the people within. When the people of Israel conquered Canaan, she converted to Judaism and married a prominent member their people.

Even the Aztecs had prostitutes. The building the Aztec prostitutes were kept in was a closed compound with rooms all overlooking essential patio. At the center of the patio was a stature of the goddess purification, steam baths, midwives, filth, and a patroness of adulterers. Religious authorities believed women should work as prostitutes if they wish, only at such premises guarded by this goddess. It was believed that she had the power to incite sexual activity while cleansing the spirit of such acts.

Inca prostitutes were segregated from other people and lived under the supervision of a government agent. In ancient Greece, both women and men engaged in prostitution. Female prostitutes could be independent and sometimes influential women. They were required to wear distinctive dresses and had to pay taxes. Some prostitutes in ancient Greece were just as famous for their company as for their beauty, and some of these women charged extraordinary sums for their services. Salon instituted the first of Athens brothels in the sixth century BC, and with the earnings of this business he built a temple dedicated to Aphrodite, goddess of sexual pleasure.

In Cyprus and Corinthe, the type of religious prostitution was practiced for the temple counted more than a thousand prostitutes. Male prostitution was also common in Greece. Slavemen worked at the male brothels and Athens, while freemen who sold their favors risked losing their political rights as adults. Prostitution in ancient Rome was legal, public, and widespread. Even Roman men of the highest social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sects without incurring moral disapproval, as long as they demonstrated self control and moderation in their frequency and enjoyment.

In India, a tawaif was a courtesan who catered to the nobility of South Asia, particularly during the era of the Mughal Empire. These courtesans would dance, sing, recite poetry, and entertain their suitors. Like the geisha tradition in Japan, their main pursuit was to professionally entertain their guests. While sex was often incidental, it was not assured contractually. The most popular or highest class courtesans could often pick and choose between the best of their suitors. They contributed to music, dance, theater, film, and more.

In China, prostitution was due to a weak economy among the rural families. Although China was a nation of wealth, the poverty stricken families were due to the overpopulation of the rural areas. Borderline starvation drove many of the women out of the rural countryside to the port side cities of China. Many of the women who took part in prostitution of China were either sold into the industry or willingly joined due to their lack of economic stability. Parents were unable to feed all of the moles of the house and often sold their daughters into the industry.

In Southeast asiaution was mostly prevalent in Singapore. Due to the active ports, Certain districts of Singapore were dedicated to brothel districts sanctioned by the colonial governments. As colonial powers entered the Asian countries, there was an increase in the number of sailors of ports. Merchant ships carried large crews of men who lacked the company of women for days on end. As these ships docked in Asian ports like Singapore, they were drawn to the market of prostitution. This higher demand for the company of women created the need for these brothel districts.

During the Middle Ages, prostitution was commonly found in the urban contexts. Although all forms of sexual activity outside of marriage were regarded as sinful by the Roman Catholic Church, prostitution was tolerated because it helped prevent the greater evils of rape, sodomy, and masturbation. Augustine of Hippo is quoted saying, if you expel prostitution from society, you will unsettle everything on account of lusts. Here's some fun facts about prostitution. Some prominent ladies in history who were sex workers Mata Hari was a Dutch exotic dancer in courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War One.

She was executed by a firing squad in France. She worked as an exotic dancer, a sex worker, and a spy. The third wife of Roman Emperor Claudius, Valeria Messalina had been a sex worker, A prominent and influential woman who was very promiscuous. She allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed for the discovery of the plot. Eleanor Gwynn, more commonly known as Nell. Gwynn was a prolific celebrity figure of the Restoration period. She was one of the first actresses of the English stage.

She became best known for being a longtime mistress of King Charles the Second of England and Scotland. Called Pretty Witty Nell, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England, and it's come to be considered a folk heroine with a story echoing the Rags to Royalty tale of Cinderella. Gwynn had two sons by King Charles. Kathleen Maddox, the mother of Charles Manson. Yes she was a sex worker. Lizzie Lape was an Ohio madam and a prostitute who ran multiple bordellos.

Lizzie married eight times, once to her best customer, and is best known for her odd connection to Warren G. Harding, twenty ninth President of the United States. Harding had worked as a newspaper editor in stage of hoax upon a rival editor named Vaughan at Lizzie's most famous bordello, the White Pigeon, Harding was able to coax Lawn into the brothel and then had the police perform a raid, causing a great deal of embarrassment for the gentleman. Is believed that mister Harding was well acquainted with Lizzie's houses and may have visited her Red Bird Saloon.

Lizzie was able to hold onto her properties despite multiple lawsuits by ex husbands, never lost their houses, and ultimately retired on her own terms. Back to history. After the decline of organized prostitution of the Roman Empire, many prostitutes were slaves. However, religious campaigns against slavery and the growing marketization of the economy turned prostitution back into a business. By the high Middle Ages, it was common defined town governments, ruling that prostitutes were not supply their trade within the town walls, but they were tolerated outside only because these areas were beyond the jurisdiction of the authorities.

So I guess out of sight, out of mind right. In many areas of France and Germany, town governments came to set aside certain streets and areas where prostitution would be tolerated. In fourteenth century London, church leaders discovered how to make a tidy income from sex workers. The brothels of Southwark were owned by the Bishop of Winchester. We can assume he was a pretty powerful person who made a ton of money. After this, that became common in the majors and cities of southern Europe to establish civic brothels.

This allowed the government to outlaw any prostitution taking place outside these brothels, and much of northern Europe a more tolerated attitude could be found towards prostitution. Prostitutes also found a fruitful market in the Crusades. Saint Thomas Aquaintas allegedly compared the sex trade to a sewer in a palace, take away the cesspool and the palace would become an unclean and evil smelling place. By the end of the fifteenth century, attitudes began to harden against prostitution. An outbreak of syphilis in Naples during fourteen ninety four, which later swept across Europe, may have originated from the Columbian Exchange.

The prevalance of other sexually transmitted diseases during the earlier sixteenth century may have caused this change in attitude. By the early sixteenth century, the association between prostitutes, plague, and contagient emerged, causing brothels and prostitutions to be outlawed by secular authority. More fun facts about prostitution, Well, actually this is about syphilis, so I guess this isn't fun, but it's interesting. Nonetheless, there have been some prominent people in history who have had syphilis, so we assume they liked the ladies of the night right, while here are just a few.

Adolf Hitler, which likely contributed to his paranoia, feelings of grandiosity, and bouts of rage al Capone, he actually died from syphilis. Blackbeard the Pirate, while he died in battle, he did have this dreaded disease At the time of his death. Howard Hughes also had it, and this could likely be why he went crazy at the end of his life and lived as a recluse. Back to history, the Church's stands on prostitution was threefold and included the acceptance of prostitution as an inevitable social fact, condemnation of those profiting from this commerce, and encouragement for prostitutes to repent.

The Church was forced to recognize its inability to move prostitution from the worldly society, and in the fourteenth century began to tolerate prostitution as a lesser evil. However, prostitutes were excluded from the Church as long as they continued with their lifestyle. Around the twelfth century, the idea of prostitute saints took hold, with Mary Magdalene being one of the most popular saints of the era. The Church used Mary Magdalen's biblical history of being a reformed Harlot to encourage prostitutes to repent and mend their ways.

Simultaneously, religious houses were established with the purpose of providing asylum and encouraging the reformation of prostitution. Magdalene homes were particularly popular and peaked in the early fourteenth century. Over the course of the Middle Ages, popes and religious communities made various attempts to remove prostitution or reform prostitutes, with varying success. Let's fast forward to the nineteenth century. In North America, prostitution was seen as a necessary evil that aided in marriag fidelity, especially as a system that would allow men to obtain sex while their wives did not desire it.

Prostitution was not a crime in the early part of the nineteenth century, and thus brothels or body houses as they called them, were tolerated in American cities, and the laws against individual prostitutes were enforced only occasionally. In the eighteen thirties, prostitution was becoming more visible in North American cities, and with the professionalization of police forces, visible prostitutes, such as street walkers, risked arrests. Raids on brothels were comparatively rare, and prostitution was tolerated in mining towns, cattle towns, and urban centers in the American East.

In eighteen seventy, prostitution was legalized and regulated in the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Prostitutes were licensed by public health officials and were required to maintain weekly inspections for sexually transmitted diseases. However, due to protests and demonstrations organized by women and members of the clergy, Missouri legislators repealed legislation that allowed regulated prostitution. The Page Act of eighteen seventy five was passed by the US Congress and forbid any importation of women for the purpose of prostitution.

The national moved criminalized prostitution was led by Protestant middle class men and women who participated in the revivalism and movement of the nineteenth century. Many of the women who posed in the nineteenth and twentieth century vintage erotica were prostitutes. The most famous were the New Orleans women who posed for E. J. Bellock. In the nineteenth century, legalized prostitution became a public controversy as France and then the United Kingdom passed the Contagious Disease Acts. This legislation mandated pelvic examinations for suspected prostitutes.

It applied not only to the United Kingdom and France, but also to their overseas colonies. Many early feminists want to repeal these laws, either on the grounds that prostitution should be illegal and therefore government regulated, or because it forced degrading medical examinations upon women. A similar situation existed in the Russian Empire. This included prostitutes operating out of the government sanction brothels, giving yellow internal passports signifying their status, and were subjected to weekly physical exams.

Leo Tolstoy's novel Resurrection describes legal prostitution in the nineteenth century Russian and that wraps it up. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Strange History. It was not an easy one to make. Human trafficking is not a light matter, and I do not condone it. This one was more about the history that has shaped our world. If you liked this episode, find us wherever you listen to podcasts, Apple, Spotify, etc. Thanks to Deadme Productions for making me sound like a superstar every week, and thank you to Spreaker for being the best podcast platform in the world.

You have an idea for an episode, emails at Strange History pod at gmail dot com. Thanks Starcast Network for being awesome. He's out. Yang

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