Effetes, Chickats and the sexual underground culture in the pre-antebellum South:
"I have been in the practice of waiting upon Girls of ill fame, negotiating terms with their patrons at the barbers and salons, made up their Beds, dressed their hairs and received said Company at the door and received the money for Rooms.
Above us all in position and standing was an Annie whom we were to call Ma'dea Fatma.
It was she who induced me to dress in such Clothes, saying she saw me longing for them, that I would looked so much better in them and I have always attended parties among the people of my own Kind dressed in this way -- and in New Orleans and Charleston I always dressed in this way -- "
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excerpt testimony of Manitra Sa'id liberated and saved youth thanks to the Presbyterian Church
The first specific recording of Effetes who among termed Annies (derived from the arabic K'anith/Xanith) was observed in 1815:
"The Annies are in the habit of calling one another my Dear, and hugging, kissing, and tickling each other, as if they were a Mixture of wanton Males and Females, and assuming effeminate Voices and Airs speaking a queer tongue neither white nor Moor understands
Among their own kind Men generally wear either western clothing or in times of religious importance deep dark indigo tunics, women wear patterned robes in bright indigo while Annies wear a solid colored tunic with or without collars, normally in pastel tones of blue.
Publically moorish men have hair hidden under their skullcaps; women keep theirs long and under their bonnets; and Annies heads are without covering and fashioned in whimsical shape, colors and forms, heavily dressed in perfumed oil, their skin free of facial or body hair due to epilation as a means of showing their skills."
Annies and Brothel Society: Annies participate in social structures relegated to women, such as entering the bride’s chamber before she is unveiled, singing with women during the wedding celebration, and eating with them.
They act as head servants, tailors and hairdressers to women and men of the Moorish and white communities.
Their businesses are common, generally the investments of wealthy Moorish wives and misstresses with at least one for every church a town has.
They keep a general assortment of perfumery, scented soaps, shaving apparatus and dressing boxes, fine cutlery, fancy hair, pomade for their salons, bowls of pomegranates (queens Anne's pocket melons) and casabananas for perfume. Above the salon being rooms for other Annie acolytes.
Among the most grand examples found in the Cotton Belt or major cities from Washington (D.C.) to Houston these salons also doubled as gentleman's clubs providing a steady stream of wealthy white and moorish clients to high end Moorish courtesans: the Chickats.
The community of Chickats and Annies are usually placed outside the traditional set of family compounds in a moorish neighborhood or town. The space outside the compounds also usually straddled Moorish and white communities but still just outside the prying eyes of wives either in the form of bordello covered by woods or steamboats.
In these salons the social pressure of Islam and Christianity is minor and thus the atmosphere was more tolerable towards Chickats many of whom are divorced women who have refused to move back to theirchildhood home or bastard daughters of Moor and slave.
Chickats covered from the hairline down to just below the nose had conversation and socialized with men, playing cards, drinking, playing music, singing, smoking hashish or tobacco from hookahs and pipes.
By mid-December "The Night of Festivals" occurred were Chickats selected by Annies perform songs of lust and dances of desire often partially or wholly nude.
At this point men: Moorish and White bid to have the courtesan as their mistress, paying both the lead Annie of the Salon and the woman directly. From there the winning bidder builds a home near the salon and recognizes any children reproduced in such a situation as their own.
The Chickats were heads of households with allowances and incomes, the remained close to the salons, the Annies and the security of guards but were free to purchase land and invest as they pleased elsewhere.
There was not a single brothel of good standing untouched by Annies and by extension Moors in the whole of the south, indeed the Quadroon Balls of NOLA were curated by them.
Nor was there a white woman alive who has reached the prices won by a Chickat.
Such the case that dusky european women and mixed race women with familiarity of Moorish culture will pretend to be a moor.
Many salons and Chickat homes were turned into hospitals, orphanages, schools and places of worship in wills that often gave large sums of money to public works projects lending a softening effect to their reputations by nearly all.
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For those interested the Annies are based on 5 source individuals and subcultures.
The first is Peter Sewally a black crossdressing person who's 1836 NYC testimony above I lifted in the first quote.
Secondly was the worlds first known self proclaimed "Queen of Drag" William Dorsey Swan a former slave who produced drag balls and functions.
The Mollies of 18th century England of cross dressing and gender variant people who lived in communities and collectives.
Yan Daudu of Hausaland who's practices of working with sex workers as intermediaries. Both of whom transgressed gender norms.
The Xanith of Sofar made up mostly of South Asian-Omani and Swahili Omani communities and the intermediate gender expression also were used.
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