Adeline Miller, alias Adeline Furman (1777 – August 24, 1859), was an American

madam Madam (), or madame ( or ), is a polite and formal form of address for Woman, women in the English language, often contracted to ma'am (pronounced in American English and this way but also in British English). The term derives from the French ...

and

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

. According to her contemporary

George Templeton Strong George Templeton Strong (January 26, 1820 – July 21, 1875) was an American lawyer, musician and diarist. His 2,250-page diary, discovered in the 1930s, provides a striking personal account of life in the 19th century, especially during the eve ...

, Miller was active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

prostitution from the late 1810s. By 1821, she was running a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

on Church Street, where she had accumulated personal effects worth at least $500. Over Miller's 30-year career, she became quite wealthy. At one point or another, Miller ran houses on Duane, Elm, Orange and Reade streets. She owned, but did not manage, another brothel on Cross Street. Rumors suggested that, in the 1840s, she charged her girls $14 a week to stay in her brothels. By 1855, she had many personal residences; the one on Church Street alone contained effects valued at $5,000. Miller was a

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

as well. Her name appeared in tourist guidebooks and in the diaries of rich New Yorkers. The ''

Libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour ob ...

'' opined that she and

Phoebe Doty Phoebe Doty (died June 9, 1849) was an American prostitute and madam. In 1821, she started her career in a bordello in the Five Points neighborhood of New York City. Over the next three years, she accrued $600 in personal belongings.Gilfoyle 72. F ...

, another madam, should rent New York's Park Theatre and talk about their exploits. The paper predicted that "the house would be crammed if the ''entrance'' was five dollars a ''head''. The bigger the harlot now-a-days the more money is made." By the 1840s, the aging Miller had become the subject of negative press, particularly from the ''

Whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

''. The paper called her a "grey-haired hag" and "the most wicked procuress in the city". Miller had children, though all entered more mainstream professions. Her daughter, Louisa Missouri Miller, was an actress and mistress of English actor and

theatre manager Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Thomas S. Hamblin.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Adeline Criminals from New York City American prostitutes American brothel owners and madams 1777 births 1859 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesswomen