Jasmine Mondragon
Dr. Erika Jackson
6 November 2017
The Outlines of Sex in Antebellum America
Northeastern people who were apart of Antebellum America brought about many different social changes. The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and established a new industrial revolution.
Factories among the Erie Canal led women, men, and migrants to work. Farmers began to leave their crops and move to the city for a better job opportunity. Over population began to rise within the cities leading to an increase in schools as well. These common schools according to Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Attitudes toward Sex in Antebellum America: A Brief History with Documents mentions “…town common schools, supported by taxes, encouraged all white children girls and boys to attend” (3.) With children attending school and mothers/wives leaving the sphere of their home, a law was created. The law declared couverture. The Common laws, explained in great detail that, “a women’s legal identity was “covered” by that of her husband.” The creation of couverture law led women the inability to vote, take in any office, become a lawyer, or have the ability to leave their husbands. These women were practically owned through their husband. The government had a great fear of economic competition between men and women. Due to separation of spheres, women were now working in a growing business. Prostitution began to spread and citizens in Antebellum America did not like sex or how it was portrayed through their daily lives.
Many Americans during the 19th century disliked the meaning of sex within this time and created ways to discuss them as a sin, or meaningless to the society. “Voices in the Public Deliberation of Sex: The Four Frameworks,” (35) was created to identify people expressing their emotions toward sex. Horowitz describes each of the four frameworks starting with the first: Vernacular Sexuality. Aristotle’s Master-piece is a collection of writings for the so said “bible of sex.” Everyone with ideas of sex is put together to discuss what sex is. In the explanation of sex, steps are explained in great detail of body parts being used during the actions, with description of how and when they will be needed. The “book” ends with the women becoming pregnant with a child. The next three frameworks explain how other people impacted the antebellum Americans throughout this time.
Evangelical Christianity is the second of the four frameworks. A Reformation of Morals Practicable and Indispensable, is a document written to describe “human nature is too good to be made better by discipline, that children are enticed from the right wat thraldom by the conspiracy of priests and legislators, has united not a few in the noble experiment of emancipating the world, by the help of an irreligious, ungoverned progeny” (44.) The third framework: Reform Psychology is of the few discussing psychological matters through the ideas of sex. “During the antebellum years, masturbation became an obsessional concern for many writers about sexuality” (72.) Sylvester Graham, brought about The Masturbation Scare in 1834. Americans understood the meanings of sex throughout the 19th century. When Graham published his ideas created a panic over antebellum America. As younger males were discovering masturbation, he mentions in great detail the dangers it could cause to their health and the health of future fertilization. Graham breaks down “self-pollution,” in four separate parts. Overall, “…until it sometimes reaches the most ruinous excess, and acquires a power which irresistibly urges on the unhappy sufferer, in the voluntary course of self-destruction” (73.) was how Graham portrayed sexual actions upon one’s self. It is a one-person party therefore a second person wouldn’t know it was taking place. He scared people out of doing it. Calling masturbation “Onanism,” meant a man who “spilled” his seed and cannot fertilize. Sex at the Center of Life is the fourth and final framework. The fourth framework was created by Thomas Low Nichols and Mary Gove. Esoteric Anthropology revolves sex around life itself. “Happiness, enjoyment, pleasure, or whatever word may express to us the natural and harmonious action and gratification of the human passions, appears to be the single end or final cause of creation.” It explains the functions of generations, sexual indulgence, unnatural manifestations, and sexual desires. These points explained through each of the four frameworks shapes how Americans understand sex in the 19th century. Some results scared the people while others opened their eyes to new possibilities throughout sexual activities. The penny press helped advertise sex in its own way.
Advertisements and sensational stories were published in the penny press. The penny press is similar to today’s TIME magazine. Throughout the advertisements prostitution was incredibly highlighted. Due to the Erie Canal many brothels and prostitution began to rise throughout the city. Men were working in factories and women were able to leave the sphere of the home with no children to work as a prostitute. The Magdalen Report, 1831 by John R. McDowall discussed trade within New York and it called for reform. He believed the young men of the city who haven’t experienced prostitutes are threatened by their works. As McDowall continues that prostitutes are “the daughters of the ignorant, depraved and vicious part of our population, trained up without culture if any kind, amidst the contagion of evil….” (129.) The penny press widened the world of prostitution, and The Magdalen Report, explains how these girls might feel being called “celebrities” and such. Not all prostitutes were of age or were wives of drunken husbands who didn’t care to make money for their households. The prostitutes were left to make money for their homes. This led to a growing sexual culture, and more sexual crimes throughout antebellum America. The Comstock Law of 1873 slowly began to stop all pertaining to sex.
The Comstock Law of 1873 was “An Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use” (Doc 3, 157.) This law made it illegal to send out six different kinds of mail. The six consisted of: “erotica; contraceptive medications or devices; abortifications; sexual implements, such as those in masturbation; contraceptive information; and advertisements for contraception, abortion, or sexual implements” (157.) While explaining in great detail of the different mail that couldn’t be sent, it also explains if this occurs you could be fined highly, imprisoned, or even both. Since the Comstock Law of 1873 was created, government officials thought it should be with ban books and pamphlets in support of sex education. Throughout the 19th century sex was a big deal but rarely ever talked about through history. Different ideas and assumptions brought about sex as unlawful and not necessarily needed.