False Facts About The Wild West You Always Thought Were True

We've all seen Deadwood. We all know Trixie. We know that 19th-century prostitutes had a rough life, subject to abuse, poor personal hygiene and the whims of their employer. At least, this was the common perception, until Thaddeus Russell published A Renegade History of the United States in 2010.

Back in the day, women had no real rights. Women were barely allowed to work, and those jobs they were permitted to do paid obscenely low salaries. Wives has no legal right to property and were themselves the lawful property of their husbands. Respectable women in the Wild West could not, to paraphrase Russell, own property, make high wages, have sex outside of marriage, perform or receive oral sex, use birth control, consort with men of other races, dance, drink, walk alone in public, or wear makeup, perfume, or stylish clothes—all things women are obviously allowed to do in today's American society. The only women who could do all these things, surprisingly, were prostitutes.

As described in Russell's book, madams owned some of the sweetest real estate in the Wild West, during a period in history when women owning land was virtually unheard of. Prostitutes also had the highest income of all American women, and with money comes power, so wealthy madams held great influence in the development of the west. In a time when health insurance wasn't commonplace, some madams even offered free health care to their employees, in addition to private and police protection from rowdy or dangerous clients. In terms of personal freedom, prostitutes were free from the "slavery of marriage," and were—in many ways—some of the first, true American feminists.

Some prostitutes even carried guns. So you best mind your manners.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCBk2tqa2eWlrm0sYyfmJyso2LEqrjDZq6eq6Rirq3DwLKqZqyYpMKotNNmq6utlWQ%3D