A few months ago I was gathering material for a research paper on The Holy Ground. If you’re not caught up yet, that’s the red light district for New York City during the late 18th century. Imagine my surprise when one of the only primary source materials for this time was a journal written by a soldier named…
Isaac BANGS.
His mom’s name was Desire (spelled D-E-S-I-R-E) Bangs. Like, come on.
Bangs was born in Massachusetts in 1752. He was educated at Harvard College and began to study medicine after graduation. (A real underachiever.) For a short time, he practiced medicine in the town where he grew up. (He was a medical hobbyist, really.) At the onset of the war, he enlisted as Lieutenant in the Continental Army in Colonel Cary’s regiment in late January 1776. His diary begins in Massachusetts and his regiment eventually moves to New York City.
But DID Isaac Bangs BANG?
Unclear. In re-reading his journal this week, I’ve decided to pull the most fun sections and discuss them for your reading pleasure.
April 25th 1776
During the Course of the last Week I several Times visited the Holy Ground, before described. When I visited them at first, I thought nothing could exceed them for impudence and immodesty; but I found the more I was acquainted with them the more they excelled in their Brutality. To mention the Perticulars of their Behaviour would so pollute the Paper I write up on that I must excuse myself.
Whatever Bangs is witnessing is so “brutal” that he blushes merely at the thought of writing down the details. I wonder about this. Is the immodesty he experiences just sex work generally? Is is nudity out in the open that leaves him shocked? Many of these men came from small towns which they never left until war. Their exposure to the variety of life and variety of vice in a big city like New York City was shocking in and of itself. I doubt Dover, Massachusetts had a Holy Ground equivalent.
Considering the treasure trove of nudity available on HBO alone, I always wonder if we would be as scandalized in Holy Ground as Isaac Bangs apparently was. For God’s sake we have Euphoria. Anyone with an incognito tab on their laptop has seen as much as Isaac Bangs by way of sexual acts in Holy Ground. Still, seeing pornography and walking among a sex district are not the same thing, as we’ll soon read.
Societal norms would have also had an impact on the way Bangs and other men viewed the women of Holy Ground in New York City. For more specifics on that, click here.
The whole of my aim in visiting this Place at first was out of Curiosity, as was also that of the chief of the Gentlemen that accompanied; & it seems Strange that any Man can so divest himself of Manhood as to desire an intimate Connexion with these worse than brutal Creatures, yet it is not more strange than true that many of our Officers & Soldiers have been so imprudent as to follow them, notwithstanding the salutary advice of their Friends, till the Fatal Disorder seized them & convinced them of their Error.
My favorite part here is that Isaac Bangs visited Holy Ground repeatedly, but out of curiosity, not patronage. Ah, yes. This was purely academic for Isaac. A man of sociology. A patriot of inquiry. Given how obviously obscene the activities of Holy Ground apparently were, what was he not seeing the first time that led him to return more times?!
This is the second time that Isaac Bangs has used the word “brutal” in describing these women and Holy Ground. It’s an interesting choice of term, and one that I believe was used purposefully. Rather than unfortunate or sinful, “brutal” equates to a viciousness or harshness, as in women who are violent in their behavior.
There are specific instances of brutality that we’ll soon see. However, Bangs seems to describe these women’s innate state as brutal. How I wish time travel were real. Is it Bangs’ perception of these women and their behavior misaligning with his expectations that makes them brutal? Are these women truly ruthless and ferocious? It’s likely a mix. Consider the societal standards of the time that women needed to align themselves with. I cannot imagine the circumstances a woman endures that lead to her being described and seen as brutal.
I am informed that not less than 40 Men of one Reg which last Sunday set off for Quebeck were infected with that Disorder. What fine order these Men must be in charge to undergo a fatiegueing March through a cold, uninhabited Country! Unless there is some care taken of these horrid Wretches by the Gen, he will soon have his Army greatly impaired, for they not only destroy Men by Sickness, but they sometimes inhumanly Murther them; for since Monday last two Men were found inhumanly Murthered & concealed, besides one who was castrated in a barbarous Manner. This so exasperated the Men that in the face of Day they assembled and pulled down the Houses where the Men were thus treated & with great difficulty the Guards dispersed them after they had leveled them to the Ground. This, together with the common Riots incident to such Places, made our Men a little more Cautious how they ventured to prophane Holy Ground with their Presence.
The language here is absolutely fascinating. In the paragraph above, Bangs makes it clear that soldiers are aware of venereal disease and are cautioned against visiting Holy Ground. Yet, the women there are written as though they were predators. “They destroy Men by sickness.” The castration and murder are God awful. Holy Ground attracted all sorts of unsavory types. It’s interesting that the soldiers are entirely convinced that the women are responsible for murder and castration, and not one of the men loitering in the area.
April 29
An old Whore who had been so long Dead that she was rotten was this Day found concealed in an out House at the Holy Ground.
It’s odd even to me how curious I become in the fate of someone history has decided not to care about. Without any evidence, the soldiers find themselves a culprit for the murder of their fellow soldiers, but who killed this woman? Tough to say. Tougher, apparently, to bother. We’ll have to wait for the podcast that never gets made.
If I could interview anyone from the past, it would be this woman. I’m less interested in the gossip than I am in the trajectory. How she got here, what she thought this life would be, and whether there was ever a version of it that felt like hers. Because no one is born an “old whore.” That’s something history assigns at the end.
Also worth noting: when a man dies in the Holy Ground, he is murdered. When a woman is hidden away in an outhouse until she rots, she has simply been dead for a while. Time, it seems, is the only thing that happens to her.
May 8th
In the Afternoon I visited a very agreeable Young Ladie of this City Miss _____ ______, with whom I had before had a small acquaintance…She in Turn was not so ungratefull as to take no Notice of me, but as I accidentally passed the House for several Times, I observed that she seemed to Compliment me with more respect than is usual, or than I deserved; but as I was bashfull, I no more than returned the Compliment, & passed by till at length I made bold to enter the House with the Gentleman that was with me; but as he was in a great Hurry I could not tarry long, but was obliged to depart, bitterly against my will; however I gave her Intimation that I should again call in…”
“…I took this opportunity to spend an Afternoon with her. I found playing upon her Spinet, upon which she performed to admiration; her Musick, joined to an agreeable Person, gave me very favourable Ideas of my New Acquaintance, Reading & Chatting, &c., till about 5 o’clock, when her mother came and asked us to Tea…”
This is, apparently, Isaac Bangs flirting. Or attempting to. He circles the house “accidentally” several times like a man who has never once been casual in his life, convinces himself she’s showing him special attention, and then finally works up the courage to go inside, only to be dragged away almost immediately. Tragic.
When he does make it back, everything is very proper. She plays the spinet “to admiration,” they read, they chat, her mother appears for tea. It’s all so aggressively respectable you almost forget he’s the same man wandering the Holy Ground a few entries earlier. The rangeeeeeeee, honey!
July 1st, 1776
In the fore Noon spent some time very agreeably with some young Ladies of my acquaintance in the City.
I’m sorry, Isaac Bangs is just going to toss out “a very agreeable time with some young Ladies” and then give us nothing else? No details? No follow-up? No names? That story, tragically, has been left to the ravages of time. We’ll never know what he considered “very agreeable,” and I want to know so badly if these women would have considered their time very agreeable. I imagine giggles. I imagine tipples. I imagine the youthful fun of flirting with new friends despite the anxieties of a British invasion.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these diary excerpts as much as I have. Bangs’ journal is full of interesting entries. There’s full sections where he describes visiting a Dutch church and a Synagogue for the first time. That felt so New York City to me. This city has always been a place where people brush up against lives that aren’t their own. There’s something exciting about being dropped into someone else’s world: different customs, different rhythms, different ways of doing things, and trying to figure out how it all works. New York City, with its vast variety of life, is prime for those experiences. It was fun to see that 250 years ago, the New York City imperative of peering into a worldview different than one’s own was already alive and well.
Source:
Bangs, Isaac. Journal of Lieutenant Isaac Bangs, April 1 to July 29, 1776. Edited by Edward Bangs. Cambridge, MA: J. Wilson and Son, 1890.