Randy Sparks, a history professor at Tulane University, chronicled New Orleans’ fall from a hopeful, pious establishment to an anarchic, secular haven in his 2007 work “American Sodom: New Orleans Faces Its Critics and an Uncertain Future.”
In the Europeans’ quest for colonial expansion on American soil, Sparks (2007) revealed how they clung to the theory that religion safeguarded against moral decadence. Due to the unfamiliarity of the New World, he explained how the newcomers fully intended for their colony to adhere to staunch religious codes, as was a major custom in France. Based on Sparks’ (2007) research, the founders did not anticipate Louisiana’s male population showing sexual interest in Native American women rather than court French women in the …show more content…
He painted the Storyville scene vividly, mentioning how customers juggled women and gambling, while comforted by jazz. Of course, this latest addition to the New Orleans landscape caught the attention of the south and finally the rest of the United States (Sparks, 2007). Storyville enjoyed a successful run from its founding in 1897 to the eve of World War I. As told by Sparks (2007), the Secretary of the Navy demanded the city to shut down the brothel since the military presence in New Orleans required heightened national security. Despite the shuttering of Storyville, prostitution remained the city’s most profitable pastime (Sparks,