Themes: Gender, Sexuality, Race, Power
Geographical Scope: Philadelphia
Chronological Scope: 1730-1830 (periodization is unique)
Thesis Summary: Philadelphia in the mid-to-late 18th century was unique in the way it dealt with sexuality; in fact, it had a thriving sexual pleasure culture that included sexual freedom for women and men. Serial monogamy and sexual liaisons that resulted in children out of wedlock were socially acceptable, and for a time, prostitution was tolerated. Women who gave birth to children regularly sued for child support, and their partners seldom denied their responsibility. The social structure in place, run by a group of artisans called the Overseers of the Poor was eventually wrenched away from power by Quakers concerned with the behavior and also cost of Philadelphians. The moral authority of the Quakers accelerated as slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania in 1780. By the early 1800s, the image of white women as a chaste model of perfection and the association of poor whites and people of color with sexual deviance formed the foundation for gendered and racial oppression in the absence of slavery.

Chapter Outlines:
1. Wives challenged the patriarchy through self-divorce.
2. The pleasure culture, out-of-wedlock children, child support, and prostitution.
3. Eroticized print.
4. Class and racial dynamics.
5. Gender politics and men/women’s roles.
6. Non-marital sexuality in print (changes to it)
7. Attempts at sexual reform (gentle coercion)
8. Attempts at sexual reform (repression)

Methods:
Blend of social & cultural history.

Sources:
Popular Print
Court Records
Church Records
Social Agency Records
Newspapers

Historiography:
Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America
Butler, Gender Trouble
Cott, Passionlessness
Cohn, The Murder of Helen Jewett
Dayton, Women Before the Bar
Fischer, Suspect Relations
Fletcher, Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England
Grossberg, Governing the Hearth
Hodes, White Women, Black Men
Lystra, Searching the Heart
Stansell, City of Women
Thompson, Sex in Middlesex
Ulrich, Good Wives
William & Mary Quarterly, January 2003

Keywords:
Acts of the Pennsylvania Assembly
African-Americans
Adultery
Bastardy
Citizenship
Cross-racial sex
Enlightenment
Divorce
Gender
Indentured servants
Laws/Legal prosecution
Lower classes
Marriage
Overseers of the Poor
Patriarchy
Popular and Print Culture
Prostitution
Race
Republicanism
Benjamin Rush
Self-divorce
Sexuality