The Politics of Sexual Restraint: Debates over Chastity in America, 1780-1860.

Abstract

Entitled The Politics of Sexual Restraint: Debates Over Chastity in America, 1780-1860, my dissertation highlights three prominent groups who were advocates of sexual restraint in early-nineteenth century America: Shakers, Catholic priests and nuns, and followers of sexual reformer Sylvester Graham. In the decades between the American Revolution and the Civil War, mobs attacked Shaker villages, burned Catholic convents, and rioted against Graham’s lectures. Discussions of celibacy and sexual self-control seemingly provoked “sex panics” about people who were not having sex. Advocates for celibacy and chastity faced hostility in the form of armed violence, prejudicial lawsuits and legislation, as well as print attacks from editors and pamphleteers. For these Americans, sexual restraint was nearly, if not as, disturbing as sexual excess. The question is why. By promoting sexual restraint, the Shakers, Catholic priests and nuns, and reformers I examine de-naturalized the assumed naturalness of sex within marriage. In doing so, they undermined the sexual foundation of middle-class identity.

Controversy around the sexual practices of Shakers, Catholic priests and nuns, and Grahamite reformers arose out of the particular social, cultural, and economic conditions of the first half of the nineteenth century. Revolutions in print and publishing, in consumer goods and services, and in travel and transportation created a context that allowed these groups to emerge as sexual minorities. These innovations also provided advocates of sexual restraint mediums to engage with their critics and promote their sexual philosophies to a curious and often hostile public. The predisposition to categorize those who practiced sexual restraint as somehow “other” further contributed to the development of celibacy as a distinct sexual identity in the antebellum era. Investigating sexual restraint gives a more comprehensive picture of the sexual landscape of early America. It allows us to better envision how Americans in the nineteenth century understood sexuality and its relationship to concepts of “natural,” “normal,” and even humanness itself.