Reading Response - Week 4: Revolution

Allison Brown HIST 4340: Social Hist. of American Women Dr. Hampton February 8, 2023 Reading Response - Week 4: Revolution Primary documents compiled Documenting in Intimate Matters: Primary Sources for a History of Sexuality in America edited by Thomas Foster (2012) in “Packet 2” are comprised of written and oral social and legal histories which provide accounts of women in different social, economical, and political spheres. Although their original publishing or written dates span over two-hundred years, certain similarities between the primary sources’ accounts and perceptions of religion as well as interracial relations offer areas of comparison and contrast between the sources which can also provide a throughline in experiences included in these primary sources. First examining religion, the sources range from Puritan colonies to Quaker-settled cities. Each different source examined from a different region offers insights into how individuals viewed their relationship to religion, and more importantly, how views of religion impacted gender, sexuality, and class. Starting with the “Massachusetts Body of Liberties”, in 1641, the “Capitall laws” were framed from a biblical context, establishing both same-sex relations and adultery as capital punishments. Framing the law entirely from different biblical texts, as a reference for each of the laws, instilled the role of religion in forming normative sexuality and sexual relations under the law. By establishing religious texts in law, the Puritans in this context were able to determine normal and deviant sexuality via the law as opposed to only through their religious influence in a community. Looking to the Witchcraft Trial of Catherina Lujan in New Mexico, in 1708, similar religious attitudes are clearly evident in the proceedings of the court. The primary sources also discuss the role of sermons in New England in further spreading Puritan beliefs regarding sexuality with the “Unchast Practices” Sermon in 1716 writing, “Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge” (22). Notions of race and religion interconnect in the case of Document 13 titled “Life and Dying Speech of Arthur, a N- Man” from 1768. This “Dying Speech” is an execution speech, which was common as a genre to push religious matters on individuals in the public press. This execution speech in its first paragraph establishes Arthur’s owners’ treatment of him as an enslaved individual, “... to read and write, and was treated very kindly by my Master; but was so unhappy as often to incur the Displeasure of my Mistress, which caused me then to run away” (33). This early establishment of culpability onto the enslaved person from seemingly a first-person perspective serves two purposes. First, it allows a narrative to develop that again absolves the slave owners’ responsibility and secondly, it allows for the heavily racialized religious discourse which follows, “... I would solemnly warn those of my Colour, as they regard their own souls, to avoid Destertion from their Masters, Drunkenness and Lewdness; which three Crimes was the Source form which have flowed the many Evils and Miseries of my short Life” (36). By specifically warning “those of Colour” this execution speech serves a purpose to further correlate race with deviance or immorality. By linking race and deviance together in this context, the religious argument of this sermon is advanced. Additionally, these primary sources reveal a broader, consistent to this course, theme of concern and policing centered around interracial sexual relations, most especially with regards to the sexuality of women being at risk, deviant or men of color taking advantage, or women lacking the self-control to restrain from a sexual. In John Lawson on “Native American Women” in North Carolina, in 1709, “The Indians say, that the Woman is a weak creature, and easily drawn away by the Man’s Persuasion; for which reason, they lay no blame upon her, but the Man (that ought to be the Master of his Passion) for persuading her to it” (18). The role of women’s “self-control” and autonomy came into question, especially with regards to concerns of mixed-race sexual relationships. This is evident in “Chassin to Father Bobe, Louisiana in 1722 as French women were requested to join New France in Louisiana to avoid relationships with French men and enslaved and indigenous populations. North of this in Rhode Island in the 1752-1774 “Depositions in the case of Sarah Muckamugg” details concerns which led to regulations making relationships between white women and African American men illegal. At the same time, relationships between African Americans and Indigenous populations drew social and legal attention, but not the same scrutiny as mixed-race relationships involving white women. ● What similarities do these primary sources reveal about social and oral histories? What do these particular primary documents reveal about which histories and historical records contribute to these historiographies? How are these histories impacted by who writes/compiles/shares them? ● With regards to the first reading on “missing or runaway wives” what similarities can we see the past weeks in this course? How do these adverts serve as a benchmark through different times and places?