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There was a 20% chance that you would be employed as a prostitute if you were a woman in the "Old American West”.
In the Old American West, the mining population was composed of 95% young and male people so a high demand during that time was female companionship. Saloons also doubled as a brothel during this time.
A historian would first look at the reliability of a source - when it was published and what was happening at the time (context), who wrote it and their qualifications, any bias the author may hold, whether author sources corroborate the source, whether the author has used references, whether the source provides evidence, who the source is representative of and whether the source provides a balanced perspective