"It Is the Devil’s Business": Acceptable Labor, Clandestine Labor, and Sex Work

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Slowly, twenty-first century Americans are beginning to accept the reality that sex work is real work. As a component of this, scholars exploring historical sex work in Boston explore this reality within the context of nineteenth century concepts of labor, acceptable versus clandestine work, and how these distinctions intersected with the reality of poverty. Mary Beaudry’s extensive work on identity and her desire to fully explore the humanity of the residents of the 27/29 Endicott Street brothel was instrumental in drawing out this narrative, especially through understanding the work available to women in the nineteenth century and the permissibility of clandestine jobs like prostitution among the poor. These complex themes are reflected in both the material culture related to the realities of sex work as work as well as better understanding the impoverished upbringings of several of the historical figures associated with the brothel at 27/29 Endicott Street.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• “Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology