"Richmond in the late 19th century was not the genteel peaceful community historians have made it. Virginia's capital was cosmopolitan, boisterous and crime-ridden. The juvenile delinquents of Richmond were held accountable in the Police Court. What emerges from the public record is a picture of what life was really like in the post-Reconstruction urban South"--
Richmond in the late 19th century was not the genteel peaceful community historians have made it. Virginia's capital was cosmopolitan, boisterous and crime-ridden. Some two hundred saloons served the city's poor and from 1905 to 1915 there was an official red light district. What emerges from the public record is an amusing and touching picture of what life was really like in the post-Reconstruction urban South.
