The Man Who Counted All Prostitutes in New York City: John R. McDowall and the Scandal of the Magdalen Report

Résumé 0

The Reverend John R. McDowall is known primarily as a controversial crusader against prostitution in New York in the 1830s. In the first half of that decade, when he lived in the city, he studied causes of prostitution, proposed methods of preventing it, and worked on creating institutions that would allow prostitutes to reenter respectable society. While previous studies of McDowall focused solely on his work as a reformer, it is important to recognize that his publications were an important component of his efforts. The intense hostility to his crusade, which led to his early death, reflected not only his controversial ideas about gender relations and the role of religion in combatting prostitution but also changing literary trends in antebellum America. This article surveys his publications and reactions to them in relation to the rise of new forms of sensationalist literature, which turned reformers who tackled controversial issues into targets of antebellum American writers and journalists.