Sex and Sexuality in Early America / / ed. by Merril D. Smith.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• MitwirkendeR: Bodle, Wayne,; Burnard, Trevor,; Godbeer, Richard,; Hambleton, Else L.,; Hessinger, Rodney,; Neuwirth, Steven,; Sayre, Gordon,; Seeman, Erik R.,; Smyth, Heather,; Weyler, Karen A.,; Wood, Stephanie,; Zacek, Natalie A.,
• HerausgeberIn: Smith, Merril D.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [1998]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 1998
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

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

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Perceptions and Realities -- PART I: European/Native American Contact, 1492-1710 -- 1 Sexual Violation in the Conquest of the Americas -- 2 Native American Sexuality in the Eyes of the Beholders 1535-1710 -- 3 Her Master's Voice: Gender, Speech, and Gendered Speech in the Narrative of the Captivity of Mary White Rowlandson -- PART II: Regulating Sex and Sexuality in Colonial New England -- 4 The Regulation of Sex in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts: The Quarterly Court of Essex County vs. Priscilla Willson and Mr. Samuel Appleton -- 5 Sarah Prentice and the Immortalists: Sexuality, Piety, and the Body in Eighteenth-Century New England -- PART III: Race, Sex, and Social Control in the Chesapeake and Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century -- 6 William Byrd's "Flourish": The Sexual Cosmos of a Southern Planter -- 7 The Sexual Life of an Eighteenth-Century Jamaican Slave Overseer -- 8 Sex, Sexuality, and Social Control in the Eighteenth- Century Leeward Islands -- PART IV: Images of Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century -- 9 Soldiers in Love: Patrolling the Gendered Frontiers of the Early Republic -- 10 "Imperfect Disclosures": Cross-Dressing and Containment in Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond -- 11 "Insidious Murderers of Female Innocence": Representations of Masculinity in the Seduction Tales of the Late Eighteenth Century -- 12 "The Fruit of Unlawful Embraces": Sexual Transgression and Madness in Early American Sentimental Fiction -- Selected Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index