Although the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City symbolically mark the start of the gay rights movement, individuals came together long before the modern era to express their same-sex romantic and sexual attraction toward one another, and in a myriad of ways. Some reflected on their desires in quiet solitude, while others endured verbal, physical, and legal harassment for publicly expressing homosexual interest through words or actions.Long Before Stonewall seeks to uncover the many iterations of same-sex desire in colonial America and the early Republic, as well as to expand the scope of how we define and recognize homosocial behavior. Thomas A. Foster has assembled a pathbreaking, interdisciplinary collection of original and classic essays that explore topics ranging from homoerotic imagery of black men to prison reform to the development of sexual orientations. This collection spans a regional and temporal breadth that stretches from the colonial Southwest to Quaker communities in New England. It also includes a challenge to commonly accepted understandings of the Native American berdache. Throughout, connections of race, class, status, and gender are emphasized, exposing the deep foundations on which modern sexual political movements and identities are built.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Long Before Stonewall Thomas A. FosterPart I Colonial Native Americas1 Warfare, Homosexuality, and Gender Status Among American Indian Men in the Southwest Ramon A. Gutierrez2 Weibe-Town and the Delawares-as-WomenGunlog Fur3 "Abominable Sin" in Colonial New MexicoTracy BrownPart II Colonial British America4 "The Cry of Sodom": Discourse, Intercourse, and Desire in Colonial New England Richard Godbeer5 Border CrossingsAnne G. Myles6 Hermaphrodites and "Same-Sex" Sex in Early America Elizabeth Reisvii7 Mapping an Atlantic Sexual CultureClare A. LyonsPart III Romantic Bonds in the Early Republic8 An Excerpt from Surpassing the Love of Men Lillian Faderman9 Leander, Lorenzo, and CastalioCaleb Crain10 The Swan of Litch?eldLisa L. MoorePart IV Reformers in the New Nation11 Sexual Desire, Crime, and Punishment in the Early Republic Mark E. Kann12 The Black Body Erotic and the Republican Body Politic,1790-1820 John Saillant13 What's Sex Got to Do with It? Laura Mandell14 In a French Position: Radical Pornography and Homoerotic Society in Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond or the Secret Witness Stephen ShapiroAfterword John D'EmilioAbout the Contributors Index About the Editor
