A Peek at the Underside of New York Victorian History: Murder Most Foul

While much of the city was enjoying a fair amount of prosperity and building fancy homes and shops, many thousands of residents had to live in filthy tenements without clean water, decent lighting, health care or any of the amenities most New Yorkers take for granted today (as did many during the Gaslight Era.) Housing was overcrowded and conducive to the spread of disease - both physical and social.

Crime was an everyday affair, and neighborhood residents often relied on gangsters and corrupt political organizations for aid in emergencies. Social services were not then considered a government responsibility.

Among the most abused victims of this system were young women. In a world where women were not considered able to do most paid jobs, and were paid considerably less than men for those jobs they were allowed to do, women alone or with small children to support were often left with a choice between the streets and the poor house. In New York, "the poor house" meant Bellevue Hospital. Many young women avoided the poor house only to become victims of the streets, where prostitution usually meant an early death from disease or violence.

Take a tour of this "underside" of Victorian New York with Dr. Harriet Davis-Kram. This program is made possible through the support of the New York Council for the Humanities and takes place on July 12 at 11:30 AM at the Tappan Library. Register online at
http://bit.ly/1kxmYGt