Sex History: The American Civil War

Damn schools. They’re leaving the best parts out of the curriculum. It turns out the Civil War era was full of sex.

Erotic novels and  mail-ordered porn proliferated among soldiers. Prostitutes were common and tolerated. Washington D.C. alone had 450 “bawdy houses”.
But there was a downside to the debauchery. STDs ran rampant. It didn’t help that condoms made of lamb intestines were the best protection available at the time. The epidemic lead Nashville, TN into “medically supervised prostitution” and the city began licensing prostitutes.

I know, why isn’t this in textbooks?
And let’s decriminalize prostitution again.

Civil War Sex and Government Health Care (Liz Langley)
Sex in the Civil War (Libido Mag)

The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War, by Thomas Power Lowry

*****
Could someone in the back please get the lights? It’s time for the video.

Civil Wartime Sexing Outside [w/ Jenna Jameson] (11 min.)
Alternative: Julie Meadows from A Witch’s Tail

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