The Quartering Act and Homosexuality in the Colonies

Show notes

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."

This Pride Month episode focuses on two questions.

First, why were American colonists increasingly frustrated with the presence of British troops in the Colonies?

Second, to what extent were Thomas Jefferson and the Founders aware of LGBTQ+ issues at the nation's founding?

Topics include the following:

-Grievances 11, 12, and 14 in the Declaration of the Independence

-The Quartering Act of 1774

-Evidentiary problems when trying to access LGBTQ+ history

-'Disordered' sexuality in the Colonies, including gay sex and master-slave sexual relations

-Similarities and differences in the treatment of homosexuals in Great Britain and the Colonies

-Reasons for the low number of executions of gay men in the Colonies

-Molly Houses and Macaronis

-Concepts of Masculinity in the Colonies

Prof. McCurdy's books are listed below:

-Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024)

-Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2019)

-Citizen Bachelors: Manhood and the Creation of the United States (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2009)