Question 1
Through surveys of cultural representations and historic people from the period, Rachel Hope Cleves demonstrates that new conversations about and expressions of gender and sexuality flourished immediately after the Revolutionary War for white Americans while noting that Native and African Americans faced increasing scrutiny, coercion, exploitation of their sexualities and genders.
Please identify two or three important examples of “Revolutionary Sexualities and Early National Genders” from her essay and/or from Bronski’s chapter, indicating author’s last name and page numbers (as printed in the original) for each example.
Question 2
In “Sexual Desire, Crime, and Punishment in the Early Republic,” Mark Kann discusses the transition from an emphasis on corporal punishments commonly used during the colonial period (such as hanging, whipping, and public display in stocks) to “long-term incarceration in penitentiaries” (page 287) during the first several decades of the new, post-Revolutionary War republic. Please name and discuss a few ways these changes were directly related to then-current ideas about criminal sexual behavior–and remember to indicate the page numbers informing your thoughts.
