I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a year. I have to admit, a monthly schedule was ambitious in the midst of continuing to run a business, researching a book, and finding enough work to pay my bills. Blogging always seemed like an "extra" activity, something that may allow me to be more personal with people without being right in front of them but not as necessary. However, I've come to realize the value of putting voice to paper, so to speak. Therefore, I am back to blogging. They just may not be as well-curated as previous entries, but I won't let perfect get in the way of the good.
The most recent and exciting thing that I've been working on is the book that I'm basing off of my tour "Madams of DC." For those who do not know, this tour explores the lives of sex workers in Washington, DC during the Civil War-era and the years that followed (book here). I've been delving deeper in the lives of specific madams, including how they interacted with the city in an official capacity. This includes collecting tax records, birth, death, and marriage certificates, etc.
One question I was dying to answer was, did the madams own their properties? The question is a fascinating one because, if they did, that would demonstrate their wealth and power. Many of these women did not come from wealthy backgrounds. They made their money on their backs, or off of the backs of others. Money means freedom and independence. One of the most effective paths to achieving wealth and independence is through owning property. So my search brought me to the DC Archives facility in Naylor Court, a building I knew as the former Tally Ho Stables building. A sketch of it from 1883 is on the left, and a current photo is on the right.
Specifically, I was there to find deeds. This is where the DC Archivist maintains the records of the Recorder of Deeds. I was determined to prove that some of these women owned their properties. "What?" you may say, "But women couldn't own property back then!" Well that just wasn't true. At least for some women. Married women perhaps could not own property, because their property typically went to their husbands. Single, widowed, or very wealthy women could absolutely own property. Or at least that was my theory. So, I began by looking through the enormous books that held the index for all deeds, organized by year and by the first letter of the last name. As with most archival research, there is always a certain amount of patience and care required. Within the section per letter, the last names themselves were not in alphabetical order. I'm assuming they were organized chronologically. I was expecting to spend days, DAYS, slowly going through these massive books searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
The most important name for which I was searching was also probably the least likely to appear, in my opinion. Jane "Jennie" Catherine Malord was a woman of color, a free woman of color, but a woman of color no less. While she has emerged in my research as possibly one of the most well-known madams of Civil War-era Washington, I still wasn't sure if she would have been allowed to buy property. Had she been, it would have been a testament to her success. I opened the index of deeds for 1867 (randomly chosen place to start), and I began going through each of the sections corresponding to the last names of the madams. I arrived at the Ms. At that point I had assumed this was a fool's errand. Then, almost to the bottom of the first page, there she was. Jane C. Malord. There's no possibility that it was a different person than the one for whom I was searching. I screamed, startling the poor intern who was in the next room, probably not accustomed to so much excitement in the stacks. I gave the information from the index to the archivist, who brought me another ponderous book that contained copies of the actual deeds themselves. There is no doubt who it was. She bought Lots 1 and 2 on Square 258 on May 17, 1867 from an Eliza Yeates for $2,350, a decent sum at the time. The lots and square matched where her brothel Mahogany Hall was referenced in the papers. Here is photo evidence (by the author) of part of the deed:
This was a key piece of information for her story, that she was able to purchase property as a woman of color, and at only 25 years old. She must have made a decent amount of money as a sex worker at that point, having started ten years prior.
As the research continued, I found deeds for property bought by other madams. Ellen Reynolds, aka Ellen Wolf, would hold a mortgage for over three thousand dollars on her property known as the "Wolf's Den." Sarah "Sal" Austin paid off a mortgage in a matter of months for her property in Marble Alley, aka"Reservation B."
So what do these deeds tell us? First of all, and most importantly, it showed that a woman could own property. It also shows how much money these women had at their disposal, which was in the thousands of dollars. This also points to the incentives for these women to get into the sex trade. Sex workers made far more per hour than their other working class sisters. Therefore, they could build assets in the form of property, a more stable way to obtain wealth.
There is still so much more to explore on this topic, and I look forward to keeping my readers informed. Have any information on this subject? Please feel free to reach out to me at offthemallwalkingtours@gmail.com. In the meantime, I'll keep digging for more information on these women of the night and their lives.
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