[CiVIL WAR] Candid Letter re: Prostitutes

Autograph letter signed by William Hawkins to Uncle Bobby. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 26 May 1864. 3 pages, 8vo.

A ribald letter sent from a man named William Hawkins to his Uncle Bobby during the Civil War. William writes of a mutual friend in barely euphemistic terms: "I heard from Bill not long a go and he said that he walked three miles on that old gaim leg of his but I think he must have been after some gal just about that time not after horud horses as he said in his letter gals are all the go with him. I think he had better keep a way from them as far as three miles any how." He goes on to complain that a doctor would not provide him with medicine for his leg: "[the doctor was] so sassy to me, he can stick the leg in his a-s. if he wants to be for he can make me huckel to him or any one else." Such candid letters during the Victorian era are a rare find.

[Letters, Manuscripts, Ephemera, Documents, Sex History, Sex Workers, Prostitution, Prostitutes]