Sex and Sexuality in Early America

by Smith, Merril D.

• ISBN13: 9780814780671
• ISBN10: 0814780679
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

What role did sexual assault play in the conquest of America? How did American attitudes toward female sexuality evolve, and how was sexuality regulated in the early Republic?Sex and sexuality have always been the subject of much attention, both scholarly and popular. Yet, accounts of the early years of the United States tend to overlook the importance of their influence on the shaping of American culture. Sex and Sexuality in Early America addresses this neglected topic with original research covering a wide spectrum, from sexual behavior to sexual perceptions and imagery. Focusing on the period between the initial contact of Europeans and Native Americans up to 1800, the essays encompass all of colonial North America, including the Caribbean and Spanish territories.Challenging previous assumptions, these essays address such topics as rape as a tool of conquest; perceptions and responses to Native American sexuality; fornication, bastardy, celibacy, and religion in colonial New England; gendered speech in captivity narratives; representations of masculinity in eighteenth- century seduction tales, the sexual cosmos of a southern planter, and sexual transgression and madness in early American fiction. The contributors include Stephanie Wood, Gordon Sayre, Steven Neuwirth, Else L. Hambleton, Erik R. Seeman, Richard Godbeer, Trevor Burnard, Natalie A. Zacek, Wayne Bodle, Heather Smyth, Rodney Hessinger, and Karen A. Weyler.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: Perceptions and Realities	1	(6)
PART I: European/Native American Contact, 1492-1710	7	(80)
1 Sexual Violation in the Conquest of the Americas	9	(26)
Stephanie Wood
2 Native American Sexuality in the Eyes of the Beholders 1535-1710	35	(20)
Gordon Sayre
3 Her Master's Voice: Gender, Speech, and Gendered Speech in the Narrative of the Captivity of Mary White Rowlandson	55	(32)
Steven Neuwirth
PART II: Regulating Sex and Sexuality in Colonial New England	87	(46)
4 The Regulation of Sex in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts: The Quarterly Court of Essex County vs. Priscilla Willson and Mr. Samuel Appleton	89	(27)
Else L. Hambleton
5 Sarah Prentice and the Immortalists: Sexuality, Piety, and the Body in Eighteenth-Century New England	116	(17)
Erik R. Seeman
PART III: Race, Sex, and Social Control in the Chesapeake and Caribbean in the Eighteenth-Century	133	(82)
6 William Byrd's "Flourish": The Sexual Cosmos of a Southern Planter	135	(28)
Richard Godbeer
7 The Sexual Life of an Eighteenth-Century Jamaican Slave Overseer	163	(27)
Trevor Burnard
8 Sex, Sexuality, and Social Control in the Eighteenth-Century Leeward Islands	190	(25)
Natalie A. Zacek
PART IV: Images of Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century	215	(100)
9 Soldiers in Love: Patrolling the Gendered Frontiers of the Early Republic	217	(23)
Wayne Bodle
10 "Imperfect Disclosures": Cross-Dressing and Containment in Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond	240	(22)
Heather Smyth
11 "Insidious Murderers of Female Innocence": Representations of Masculinity in the Seduction Tales of the Late Eighteenth Century	262	(21)
Rodney Hessinger
12 "The Fruit of Unlawful Embraces": Sexual Transgression and Madness in Early American Sentimental Fiction	283	(32)
Karen A. Weyler
Selected Bibliography	315	(18)
Contributors	333	(4)
Index	337