The Ladies of Rachel Street
Sources
James Gray, Red Lights on the Prairies
Ernest A. Bell, Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls or War on the White Slave Trade: The Greatest Crime in the World’s History. 1910.
Ruth Rosen, The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 1900-1918. JHU Press, 1982.
Rhonda L. Hinther, The Oldest Profession. Manitoba Historical Society, 2001.
Joy Cooper, Winnipeg Red Lights. Manitoba Historical Society, 1970.
Alan F.J. Artibise, Gateway City: Documents on the City of Winnipeg 1873 – 1913
Kurt Korneski, Race, Nation, and Reform Ideology in Winnipeg, 1880s-1920s. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015.
Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Winnipeg had not one, but three red light districts. Over and over, we debated over how best to deal with the existence of sex work. Create a “segregated district” for ease of policing? Shut down the district (again) to preserve the morality of the city?
These debates were caught up in all kinds of fears about the dangers of modern life, both real and imagined: immigration, women working, the ills of liquor, so-called “white slavery,” and more. And, of course, the lives of sex workers were endlessly affected by these debates as they were forced to relocate and adapt to shifting expectations from law enforcement.
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