Priscilla & Babe: From Slavery's Shackles to Millionaire Bordello Madams in Victorian Saint Louis

In this intriguing novel, veteran broadcaster, author, and St. Louis icon Julius Hunter brings history back to life. Perhaps no one else would dare tempt the reading audience with the salacious and titillating details of two African American St. Louis madams --freshly emancipated from cotton plantations--in the way that Hunter has with this audacious work. By inserting the real-life characters of Priscilla Henry and Sarah "Babe" Connor into the historical narrative of the staid, stodgy, and culturally contradictory Victorian era in St. Louis, Hunter investigates and chronicles the underbelly of the African American experience in the late 19th century. Such a rendering contributes greatly to the literature of the period by adding depth and nuance to what is conventionally accepted as black life. Hunter asks the difficult question: what is success for those who have been severely oppressed in a capitalist and racist society? In covering the travails of Henry and Connor, Hunter hits at the modern notion of intersectionality by analyzing the role of race, gender, and sexuality. In essence, Hunter's story is most American with its inclusion of sex, politics, sex, racism, sex, and money.