Abstract What role did settler bawdy houses play in Canadian colonial expansion in the 1880s? The trial of “Big Nelly” Webb, a white bawdy house madam and sex worker who shot a Mounted Police constable on the doorstep of her brothel in 1888, offers critical insight into the world of these seldom acknowledged colonial institutions and the women who ran them. Far from simply “women on the margins,” Canadian officials in the North-West Territories permitted many white madams and sex workers to operate bawdy houses in emerging prairie settlements because they viewed them as essential workers. Drawing from the archives of the North-West Mounted Police, memoirs and testimonies of bawdy house sex workers and madams, and newspaper and court reports, this article explores the networks of influence that supported these houses, including local police and high-ranking colonial officials. Beyond personal ties, the influence of women like Big Nelly reflected the colonial function of the settler brothel. The waves of migrating bawdy house madams and workers who flocked to Canada’s “Last Best West” during this period could serve a very real role in the growth and biopolitical regulation of new Canadian settlements in Indigenous territory. These workers were tasked with protecting and regulating settler sexual and reproductive health, retaining white bachelor migrants in isolated settlements, and fostering urban growth. Settler bawdy houses on the Prairies were also bastions of racial segregation and containment, built to displace (and expose) workers of color and stop the growth of Black, Indigenous, and mixed-race populations and resistance in the 1880s. Indeed, race-based hierarchies did not just exist within the settler brothel economies of Canada’s North-West Territories, they were one of the foundational justifications for their existence.

中文翻译：

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另一个小房子：作为加拿大大草原殖民地机构的妓院，1880-93 年

摘要 1880年代加拿大殖民扩张中，定居者的淫秽房屋扮演了什么角色？1888 年，“大耐莉”韦伯 (Big Nelly) 韦伯 (Big Nelly) 韦伯 (Big Nelly) Webb 是一位白人淫荡家庭夫人和性工作者，她于 1888 年在她的妓院门口射杀一名骑警. 西北地区的加拿大官员绝不是简单的“边缘妇女”，而是允许许多白人女士和性工作者在新兴的草原定居点经营淫秽房屋，因为他们认为她们是必不可少的工人。本文取材于西北骑警的档案、淫荡的性工作者和女士的回忆录和证词，以及报纸和法庭的报道，探讨了支持这些房子的影响网络，包括当地警察和高级殖民官员。除了个人关系之外，像 Big Nelly 这样的女性的影响还反映了定居者妓院的殖民功能。在此期间涌入加拿大“最后的最佳西部”的移民妓女和工人的浪潮可能会在土著领土上新的加拿大定居点的增长和生物政治监管中发挥非常实际的作用。这些工人的任务是保护和调节定居者的性健康和生殖健康，将白人单身移民留在偏远的定居点，并促进城市发展。大草原上的定居者淫秽房屋也是种族隔离和遏制的堡垒，旨在取代（和暴露）有色人种工人，并阻止黑人、土著和混血儿人口的增长以及 1880 年代的抵抗。的确，