"hooker" 1835 (NY Transcript) -- Red Hook?

[Joel S. Berson]

I see that _Gotham: a history of New York City to 1898_, by Edwin G.
Burrows and Mike Wallace, is presumably one of the (secondary?)
sources for Corlear's Hook.  What about another Hook in NYC?

Red Hook is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, on the waterfront of the
Upper Bay just south of the tip of Manhattan [Google Maps].  And
where there are sailors ...  In the early 19th century it seems also
to have been a site of fortifications (a strategic location,
presumably), gunpowder storage, and military encampments, and a
(presumably poor and possibly high crime) area of Irish immigrants
and (free?) blacks.  [Googling]

"Over the decades, Red Hook, Brooklyn, has been home to many things:
a brawny, corrupt waterfront; free-range prostitution; a sprawling
housing project once ..."  ["Christie's Leases Brooklyn Warehouse to
Store Artworks", NYTimes, 2009/08/25.]  The article doesn't say which decades.

In 1744 Alexander Hamilton (the Maryland doctor) learned that walking
along the Battery (which is across from Red Hook) "was a good way for
a stranger to fit himself with a courtezan".

Possible sources for NYC prostitution (perhaps already mined) or Red
Hook [browsing Burrows and Wallace, and Googling]:

Hill, Marilynn Wood. _Their Sisters' Keepers: Prostitution in New
York City, 1830--1870_.  1993.

Gilfoyle, Timothy J.  _City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and
the Commercialization of Sex, 1790--1920_.  1992.

Whiteaker, Larry H.  _Seduction, Prostitution, and Moral Reform in
New York, 1830--1860_.  1997.

Articles by Kasinitz, Philip (and with Jan Rosenberg) on Red Hook are
probably about the 20th century, but might ggive background from the 19th.

Joel

At 10/4/2009 10:21 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>George Thompson wrote:
>>....
>>
>>Pris. -- . . . he called me a hooker. . . .
>>Mag. -- What did you call her a hooker for?
>>Wit. -- 'Cause she allers hangs round the hook, your honner.
>>New York Transcript, September 25, 1835, p. 2, col. 4
>>
>>   It certainly disproves the Gen. Hooker story, since he was but a
>> lad in 1835.  It seems to prove the "hooker from Corlaer's Hook"
>> story, except that the witness (a cop) might have been a
>> folk-etymologist in his spare time.  There are certainly instances
>> from the mid-19th century of whores as predators and the men, poor
>> things, as their victims, supporting the hooker = fisherman story.
>--
>
>A very interesting item! Is there any significant extended context?
>
>In particular: is it entirely certain what "hooker" meant in this item
>(aside from "Hook denizen", I mean)?
>
>I assume the prisoner is complaining about being called a "hooker", so I
>suppose it must have been a negative appellation. But is it clear that
>it was exactly "prostitute"? Or is it possible that it was (e.g.)
>"thief", "pickpocket", "tout", or maybe even truly "Hook denizen" (with
>implication of low social status or whatever)? If it was "prostitute" is
>there any indication of whether it was specifically "sailors'
>prostitute" or some other specialization?
>
>Does anybody have other pre-1860 instances of "hooker" = "prostitute"
>aside from those in HDAS? [Sorry, I don't.]
>
>-- Doug Wilson

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