Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918

by Jeffrey Nichols

Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power reveals insights into the complex history of prostitution in Salt Lake City. After the transcontinental railroad opened Utah to large-scale emigration and market capitalism, hundreds of women in Salt Lake City began to sell sex for a living, and a few earned small fortunes. Businessmen and politicians developed a financial stake in prostitution, which was regulated by both Mormon and gentile officials. Jeffrey Nichols examines how prostitution became a focal point in the moral contest between Mormons and gentiles and aided in the construction of gender systems, moral standards, and the city's physical and economic landscapes. Gentiles likened polygamy to prostitution and accused polygamous Mormons of violating Christian norms of family structure and sexual behavior. Defending their church and its ideals, Mormons blamed gentiles for introducing the sinful business of prostitution into their honorable city. Nichols traces the interplay of prostitution and reform from the 1890s, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began to move away from polygamy, to World War I, when Mormon and gentile moral codes converged at the expense of prostitutes. He also considers how the conflict over polygamy distinguished Salt Lake City from other cities struggling to abolish prostitution in the Progressive Era.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2002

Reviews

[Helynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most intriguing ironies of life in Salt Lake City during the 19th century was the clash of the Mormons who were morally outraged to see the advent of prostitution in their valley and the gentile residents who considered the practice of polygamy equally reprehensible. The struggle between these two groups to smooth out their different idealogies and eventually to band together around the turn of the 20th century to try to rid Salt Lake City of one of its most egregious and lucrative vices is the crux of Jeffery Nichols's intricately researched and meticulously documented historical study. Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918 delves thoroughly and unapolgetically into the seamier areas of Salt Lake history during the decades when conservative Mormon dominance gave way to the bawdier, earthier lifestyles of the gentile merchants, railroad workers, and miners who settled in the valley in the late 1860s and 1870s, and the women who followed and pandered to their baser needs. Nicholas's narrative is rich with ancedotes about the most infamous prostitutes in Salt Lake City during the cusp of the two centuries. He notes with genuine regret that there is a lack of journals and other personal documents to provide more details about the daily lives and emotions of the women who for one reason or another were driven to sell sex in the bastion of Mormonism. The author discusses the harsh realities of women's situations in Salt Lake City. Those who were not safely ensconced in either a monogamous or polygamous marriage had frighteningly few options for earning their own living. "The evidence from Salt Lake City supports financial necessity, sometimes to the point of crisis, as the leading reason some women resorted to selling sex," he states. Women's stories depcit their desperate circumstances as they struggled to keep themselves or their families afloat" (50). Amid the controversy, Mormons tried to turn their heads from the unspeakable fact that some of their own men were using the services of prostitutes. Nichols's narrative turns gossipy as he reveals how the monogamously married Frank J. Cannon, half-brother of LDS Apostle Abraham H. Cannon, frequented the brothel of well-known madam Kate Flint in the 1880s. Embarassed church leaders protected him from scandal and even paid off his debt to the house of ill fame (65). The polygamy-prostituion tension began to fade into the background after the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds Act in 1882, which dealt a blow to plural marriage and led to the LDS end-of-polygamy Manifesto in 1890 and its second, more definitive, statement in 1904. The last third of the book describes the early 20th-century cooperative efforts by Salt Lakers to eradicate prostitution from the city. Nichols calls the Manifesto the starting point of the "Americanization of Salt Lake City." With the polygamy issue quickly fading into the background, Mormons and gentiles at last felt a spirit of cooperation and united in the common cause. Nichols's study treats pologyamny and prostituion issues with honesty, sensitivity, and a professional historian's eye for detail and documentation. For anyone interested in either women's issues or the lesser-known realities of Salt Lake's early growing pains, this book is a fascinating read.

[Norma Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent history of the interconnection between prostitution and politics in communities across the country, and in particular in Salt Lake City, home of the Mormon multiple marriage. Good Christian ladies and the gentile politicians sought to ban polygamy on the grounds it was immoral, and to save the poor women/wives who were nothing more than 'prostitutes' in their eyes. The Mormon politicians sought to expose the moral hypocrisy of the gentile men who frequented the numerous brothels of the city. Some Mormon leaders went so far as to 'run' a brothel in order to catch the good Christian men carousing with the 'fallen women' therein. It is especially ironic that, a little over a century later, the great great granddaughters- metaphorically speaking- of those self- righteous Christian 'conservative' women who so vehemently condemned Mormonism are championing a Mormon candidate for the US Presidency.

The politics behind prostitution and the 'rescue' industry have not changed one bit. And the practice back then, of cops extorting prostitutes for sexual favors, is alive and well and continues unabated in cities across the country and around the world, even as the fight against the 'white slave trade' is ratcheted up ten notches in the effort to 'rescue the victims.' Just as the moralizing rescuers of late 19th and early 20th century lamented that most of the 'victims' did not want to be rescued, did not know they were victims and did not seek help from those concerned citizens, so to, today we have Dennis Mark, of Redeemed Ministries (Texas) who says: “The biggest obstacle to rehabilitating the victims are the victims themselves...Victims make it difficult to help them. They don’t realize they’re victims...” Sept. 18, 2012 "The more things change, the more they are the same"...Alphonse Karr

[M Snider · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the sexual politics surrounding prostitution in a city (Salt Lake) where many people practiced polygamy legally until 1890. The book focuses primarily on the legal actions but also devotes ample space to the work of women (both Mormon and non-Mormon) and politicians in anti-prostitution efforts - with varying degrees of success.
Although a very important book, I only gave it three stars because it is very academic and difficult to read for pleasure. It presumes a significant amount of familiarity with Salt Lake and Mormon history in Utah. However, for research, this copiously footnoted book will be invaluable.
One of the most surprising things in the book is the purposeful construction of The Stockade, a red light district in the center of Salt Lake City for the purpose of regulating prostitution and keeping it out of the view of respectable people (1908-1911). The book alludes to the Stockade but does not discuss it until near the end of the book.
The book takes a well-rounded approach to the subject and examines the powerful (and less powerful) madams, the women who sell sex in different locations (parlors, cribs, on the street), anti-prostitution reformers, politicians who wanted to regulate prostitution and those who wanted to eradicate it. It exposes tensions between Mormon and non-Mormon people in Salt Lake and some ways that the power struggle played out through sexual politics.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Economic prospects for a working-class woman in Salt Lake City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were not promising. The most widely available work offered poor wages. A 'servant girl' working in a private home in 1880s Salt Lake City could expect to earn perhaps $3 a week, and some people would only hire girls of their own religion. A brothel prostitute might earn ten times that amount."

[P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty cool. Way more focused on prostitution than polygamy, which is what I was more interested in. Nichols paints a pretty vivid picture of the life of madams, sex workers and the people decrying them. This can't be said for the polygamists. Good descriptions of municipal politics & the role of newspapers.

[Kathryn Pritchett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stumbled across this doing research for my historical novel. Fascinating details about this period and place. I had no idea that there was an active red light district at the time! Good maps and photos.

[Christopher Angulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating look into prostitution in Utah and its effects on a religion and economy.

[Jezzyka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's a pretty cool book if you have a reason to be reading it. It's VERY detailed, tells you the names, lives, and story of madams, explains where brothels were located, etc. I picked it up just for funzies. I was raised Mormon but I'm nonreligious now. Studying religion and sex are usually pretty interesting, so I went for it. Didn't get through it when life and library deadlines caught up with me.

[Richelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written by one of my college professors. It tells of the coexistence of prostitution and the LDS church in Utah from 1847-1918. Maps and photos of the areas are included and it give a new perspective of Utah history not taught in schools.

[Stephen Cranney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun history about an era and subject I knew nothing about before.

[Sara Thompson]

Written by my history professor so I think I will have to get around to reading it soon.