History & Classics
A Forgotten People: Men and Same-Sex Sexuality in Colonial America
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Subject Area
History & Classics
Start Date
11-4-2014 1:15 PM
End Date
11-4-2014 2:45 PM
Sponsor
Alan Winquist (Taylor University)
Description
Modern historians look at historical actions and events with clear hindsight. We can examine how colonial understanding of male sexuality was portrayed by the civil laws of the time. We also, as historians, are able to use this hindsight and examination of civil laws to make inferences by looking at individuals implicated in cases involving those regulations. With a modern perspective on history we can competently look past the colonial contextual understanding of sexuality deviancy as only actions with a renewed view of sexuality as playing a larger part in identity.
My approach in this paper is based on a modern understanding of sexuality, specifically what researchers of lesbian and gay history have to say about the actions and identities of colonial people. Thomas Foster and Richard Godbeer argue that one can examine the "acts versus identity pronouncement" and whether or not we are able to look at same-sex attracted men in the colonies as being driven by their identities surrounding their sexuality. This will be coupled with analyzing the colonial laws as well as the colonial court records and interpreting of these court cases. For our purposes we will be looking at the colonial laws of Connecticut, the life of Nicholas Sension, and the court cases that he was a major player in.
The laws of the colonies portrayed colonial understanding of sexuality. These laws were usually biblical in nature and only took into account the acts, not identities. In can be said with confidence that sexual identity was a strong part of male identity in Colonial America because of how we see the indicted persons living out their lives and interacting with the larger community around them. We can also see that same-sex sexuality in the colonies often played out similarly to modern time (in regards to identity formation as well as acting out desires) because we are able to look at the contextual understanding of sexually through a lens of modern understanding.
A Forgotten People: Men and Same-Sex Sexuality in Colonial America
Indianapolis, IN
Modern historians look at historical actions and events with clear hindsight. We can examine how colonial understanding of male sexuality was portrayed by the civil laws of the time. We also, as historians, are able to use this hindsight and examination of civil laws to make inferences by looking at individuals implicated in cases involving those regulations. With a modern perspective on history we can competently look past the colonial contextual understanding of sexuality deviancy as only actions with a renewed view of sexuality as playing a larger part in identity.
My approach in this paper is based on a modern understanding of sexuality, specifically what researchers of lesbian and gay history have to say about the actions and identities of colonial people. Thomas Foster and Richard Godbeer argue that one can examine the "acts versus identity pronouncement" and whether or not we are able to look at same-sex attracted men in the colonies as being driven by their identities surrounding their sexuality. This will be coupled with analyzing the colonial laws as well as the colonial court records and interpreting of these court cases. For our purposes we will be looking at the colonial laws of Connecticut, the life of Nicholas Sension, and the court cases that he was a major player in.
The laws of the colonies portrayed colonial understanding of sexuality. These laws were usually biblical in nature and only took into account the acts, not identities. In can be said with confidence that sexual identity was a strong part of male identity in Colonial America because of how we see the indicted persons living out their lives and interacting with the larger community around them. We can also see that same-sex sexuality in the colonies often played out similarly to modern time (in regards to identity formation as well as acting out desires) because we are able to look at the contextual understanding of sexually through a lens of modern understanding.