Pettus originally worked in Nashville in the Middle Tennessee region of the state, as she was arrested there circa 1855, during regular vice sweeps.

The routine was that brothel keepers were arrested at "approximately monthly intervals, fined...according to the number of prostitutes they housed, and then released...This loose system effectively taxed madams according to how many operatives they claimed.

Although found not guilty, the charge offers a tantalizing suggestion of cooperation between enslaved people and sex workers".

[5] According to a history of American Civil War-era prostitution, "Less than two weeks after Union troops entered Memphis...Provost Marshal John H. Gould found it necessary to issue a special order stating, 'Lewd women are prohibited from conversing with soldiers while on duty; nor will they be allowed to walk the streets after sunset.

"[6][7] A sense of the general character of Pettus and her work friends is conveyed by a July 1862 newspaper description of the "fast women of Memphis...The Cyprians are often young and comely, and are expensively dressed, though frequently with sober and excellent taste.