The Great Southern Babylon

sex, race, and respectability in New Orleans, 1865-1920

Plot

With a well-earned reputation for tolerance of both prostitution and miscegenation, New Orleans became known as the Great Southern Babylon in antebellum times. Following the Civil War, a profound alteration in social and economic conditions gradually reshaped the city's sexual culture and erotic commerce. Historian Alecia P. Long traces sex in the Crescent City over fifty years, drawing from Louisiana Supreme Court case testimony to reveal intriguing tales of people both obscure and famous whose relationships and actions exemplify the era. Long introduces a black woman and white man whose thirty-year romance endured without benefit of legal or social sanction; an immigrant entrepreneur who became the wealthy impresario of lascivious concert saloons; a reform activist who supported quarantining prostitution, until city leaders established vice district boundaries in his backyard; a young prostitute who prospered as a Storyville madam while leading a double life as a respectable member of society; and mixed-race women who used their legendary allure as octoroons to make their fortunes. In weaving together these individual experiences, the author uncovers a connection between the ge