Ah Toy (18 May 1829-1 February 1928) was a Chinese-American sex worker and madam in San Francisco, California.
Biography[]
Ah Toy was born in Canton, Guangdong, Qing China in 1829, and she left Hong Kong for San Francisco in 1848. She originally traveled with her husband, who died during the travel, and she became the mistress of the ship's captain. The captain gave her so much gold that she was wealthy on her arrival in San Francisco, where she became a sex worker, taking advantage of the locals' glances. She held successful peep shows before becoming one of the city's best-known sex workers, and she seduced brothel inspector James A. Clarke, allowing her to keep her brothel open.
She opened a chain of new brothels in 1852 and 1853, importing girls from China in their teens, 20s, and 30s to work in them, with some being as young as 11. She briefly retired to China from 1857 to 1859 due to increasing pressure from the Tongs, but she returned to California in 1859. She lived with several partners over the decades but was not allowed to marry due to anti-miscegenation laws. During the 1870s, she befriended Young Jun of the Hop Wei Triad and the new arrival Ah Sahm, who initially distrusted her after Long Zii Tong hatchet men attacked him shortly after he had asked Ah Toy about someone name Xiaojing. She cut out the tongue of her prostitute Li Juan for bringing the Long Zii to her brothel. Ah Toy went on to purchase 200 hectares of land with the help of Leonard Patterson, and she helped free enslaved sex workers to either work for her or find sanctuary with her lover Nellie Davenport. She died in San Jose in 1928.
