Beyond Brutal Passions: Prostitution in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Beyond Brutal Passions: Prostitution in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal
Abstract
During a time of significant demographic, geographic, and social transition, many women in early nineteenth-century Montreal turned to prostitution and brothel-keeping to feed, clothe, protect, and house themselves and their families. The author studies the women who were accused of marketing sex, their economic and social susceptibilities, and the strategies they employed to resist authority and assert their own agency. By examining newspapers, parish registers, census returns, coroners' reports, city directories, documents of Catholic and Protestant institutions, police books, and court records, the author shows how these women confronted limited alternatives and how they fought against established authority in the pursuit of their livelihoods. She details these women's lives not only as prostitutes but also as wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters who reconstructed the bonds of kinship and solidarity.
Place
Montreal and Kingston
Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Date
2015
Language
en
Citation
Poutanen, Mary Anne. Beyond Brutal Passions: Prostitution in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015.
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