What were the consequences of illegitimacy in the long eighteenth century?
Early America
Radical Relationships: The Civil War-Era Correspondence of Mathilde Franziska Anneke
The lives, letters, and “romantic friendship” shared between two women during the nineteenth century.
The Rape of Rufus? Sexual Violence against Enslaved Men
Rethinking Rufus argues that enslaved black men were sexually violated by both white men and white women.
“Well Known as Miss Betty Cooper”: Gender Expression in 18th-Century Boston
One 1771 advertisement sought the recapture of an enslaved person known by two names: Cato and Miss Betty Cooper.
Discovering Sex in the Civil War
Surrounded by death, Civil War soldiers found pleasure and fraternity in sharing erotic pictures and prints.
More than Masturbatory: An Interview with April Haynes
Antebellum women’s efforts to reform sexuality through public physiology education.
A Relationship Revealed
The miniature “Beauty Revealed” suggests an erotic relationship between an early American artist and a statesman.