Studying Female Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century London: An Historiographical Analysis

Abstract

Prostitution has become an increasingly popular topic within the field of history, due largely to a growing interest in resurrecting the lives and voices of those who were never able to leave their own records. This has become known as social history, or “history from the bottom up,” in which individuals such as peasants, workers, women, and racial minorities take center focus. Subjects such as the prostitute are also ideal candidates for its study, as they were usually female and of extremely low social status. Though these individuals left very few records of their own, they were the subject of many writings by others, primarily in the form of pamphlets, which were often produced for political, moralistic, or entertainment purposes. Such sources are valuable to the study of eighteenthcentury prostitution, though they must be examined carefully, keeping in mind the various undertones they possess. Due to the available source material on prostitution characteristic of the period, the eighteenth century has been an especially rewarding area in which to examine the history of prostitution. Many historians have focused on this topic, and it is three of their works which this paper will examine: Tony Henderson’s Disorderly Women in Eighteenth-Century London: Prostitution and Control in the Metropolis, 1730-1830 (1999), Sophie Carter’s Purchasing Power: Representing Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century English Popular Print Culture (2004) and Laura J. Rosenthal’s Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture (2006). When considering the study of such a complex topic, many questions arise, such as: how have historians overcome the difficulties inherent to the topic, what kinds of sources are employed in its study, which sources prove to be the most valuable, and what have historians discovered through their efforts? Upon systematically examining the sources and methods used by each of these three authors, I will attempt to answer such questions as well as establish an understanding of historians’ efforts to study the complex topic of prostitution in eighteenth-century London. As will become clear, the uniqueness of these three authors’ sources – legal, visual, and fictional materials, rather than the more typical pamphlet literature – and their willingness to apply less traditional methods of analysis have allowed them to enrich current understandings of eighteenth-century prostitution. Though these authors approach the topic in distinctive ways, they are simultaneously working towards a common goal of locating the prostitute within the wider social framework of the eighteenth century – a relatively recent development in the study of the topic. By reaching toward this goal they are also suggesting that, despite traditional understandings of eighteenth-century “libertinism,” prostitution was much more than just an accepted feature of a frivolous society – rather, it became a source of extreme anxiety and functioned as a valuable cultural metaphor in making sense of wider social concerns. The willingness of these three authors to approach the study of eighteenth-century prostitution with innovation and open-mindedness ensures that the topic can continue to develop and its intricacies can be better comprehended, and through a combination of original scholarship and cooperative understanding history can succeed as a collective enterprise.