Charity and Sylvia A same-sex marriage in early America

Rachel Hope Cleves, 1975-

Book - 2014

Explores the lives of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, two ordinary middle-class women who serve as a window on historical constructs of marriage, gender, and sexuality in late 18th-century and early 19th-century America. Both were born in Massachusetts, but in different towns, 11 years apart. Charity's attachment to women was so blatant that after she turned 20, her father told her to leave the house. She worked as a schoolteacher, but was forced to leave jobs several times because of hurtful gossip about her relationships with other women. In early 1807, Charity moved to Vermont to stay with a friend, and there she met Sylvia. The two fell in love, set up housekeeping, and considered themselves married. Gradually, their family member...s and the residents of Weybridge did as well. Charity and Sylvia became integral to the community, attending church, running their tailor shop, and contributing to charitable endeavors. Most of all, Charity and Sylvia remained passionately committed to each other and refused to hide their relationship. An important work of history that resonates with one of today's most public debates.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Oxford University Press [2014]
Language
English
Main Author
Rachel Hope Cleves, 1975- (-)
Physical Description
xix, 267 pages, 7 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780199335428
  • Preface : Miss Bryant and Miss Drake Were Married to Each Other
  • Book 1. Childhood
  • 1. A Child of Melancholy - 1777
  • 2. Infantile Days - 1784
  • Book 2. Youth
  • 3. O the Example! - 1787
  • 4. Mistress of a School - 1797
  • 5. So Many Friends - 1799
  • 6. Discontent and Indifferent - 1800
  • 7. Never to Marry - 1800
  • Book 3. Love
  • 8. Charity and Mercy - 1805
  • 9. Charity and Lydia - 1806
  • 10. Charity and Sylvia - February 1807
  • Book 4. Marriage
  • 11. The Tie That Binds - July 1807
  • 12. Their Own Dwelling - 1809
  • 13. Wild Affections - 1811
  • 14. Miss Bryant Was The Man - 1820
  • Book 5. Community
  • 15. Dear Aunts - 1823
  • 16. Stand Fast in One Spirit - 1828
  • 17. Diligent in Business - 1835
  • Book 6. Senescence
  • 18. The Cure of Her I Love - 1839
  • 19. Sylvia Drake - 1851
  • Afterword : A Tale That is Told
Review by Choice Review

In 1975, historian Carroll Smith-Rosenberg rescued 19th-century intimate female relationships from labels of psychological deviance and recontextualized them as typical of a sex-segregated culture ("The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs, vol. 4, no.1, Autumn 1975). Same-sex intimacy was both sensual and platonic, on a continuum between heterosexuality and homosexuality. A generation later, Cleves (Univ. of Victoria, British Columbia) succeeds in anchoring Charity and Sylvia in a loving, committed sexual relationship that was recognized as a marriage by family and community in antebellum New England. The couple blunted gossip about their unconventional love with their industry, piety, and service to the community. Cleves performs remarkable close readings of letters, diaries, poetry, wills, and business accounts as well as scripture, hymns, and novels that reveal the sexual connotations of the women's communications and the ways their families perceived that relationship. The author traces the women's families back to the pre-Revolutionary frontier and forward for several generations to show the ways that social, political, legal, technological, and economic changes highlight the ordinary and extraordinary qualities of the pair. Required reading for scholars and students in the history of women, gender, and sexuality studies and engaging for general readers as well. --Karin Gedge, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this beautifully written and utterly absorbing love story, Cleves (The Reign of Terror in America) explores the lives of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, two ordinary middle-class women who serve as a window on historical constructs of marriage, gender, and sexuality in late 18th-century and early 19th-century America. Both were born in Massachusetts, but in different towns, 11 years apart. Charity's attachment to women was so blatant that after she turned 20, her father told her to leave the house. She worked as a schoolteacher, but was forced to leave jobs several times because of hurtful gossip about her relationships with other women. In early 1807, Charity moved to Vermont to stay with a friend, and there she met Sylvia. The two fell in love, set up housekeeping, and considered themselves married. Gradually, their family members and the residents of Weybridge did as well. Charity and Sylvia became integral to the community, attending church, running their tailor shop, and contributing to charitable endeavors. Most of all, Charity and Sylvia remained passionately committed to each other and refused to hide their relationship. Meticulously researched and brilliantly argued, Cleves has crafted an important work of history that resonates with one of today's most public debates. Illus. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Cleves (history, Univ. of Victoria, BC) offers a profoundly detailed study of the loving relationship between Charity Bryant (1777-1851) and Sylvia Drake (1784-1868); "spinsters" who acceptably shared a bed and owner-ship of a house in early Colonial America. Their union was able to survive without rebuke because the people of Weybridge, VT, were willing either to ignore or be silent about the idea that the women's relationship was most likely a sexual one. Both ladies were also very active in the public religious community, which helped them maintain their private profile without slander. Their communal life was even cherished by famous relatives such as poet William Cullen Bryant. Cleves delves deeply into primary sources to prove the possibility of the women's romantic involvement. Charity's earlier attachments and relations with other women are also detailed, based on passionate letters exchanged, and Sylvia's "disinterest" in men is explained. VERDICT This volume provides an exhaustive and valuable look into a relatively unknown lesbian relationship in Colonial America, proving that Puritans could be accepting in their own way of "marriages" between women.-Lara Jacobs, Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.