PART 16
EARLY AMERICA
***, MARRIAGE, CHILDREN, GAYS, LESBIANS, BOYS AS GIRLS, ABORTION,
BREECHING, FAMILY AND OTHER MYTHS
IN 1625, the English adventurer Thomas Morton established a plantation in
the New England colony of Plymouth that soon proved to be the antithesis
of
the Pilgrim vision of life in the New World. Most migrants to early New
England sought to create godly communities built upon the centrality of
the
family, a well-ordered and stable "little commonwealth." In contrast, the
men and women who joined Thomas Morton at "Merry Mount" engaged in
"profane
and dissolute living," including ***ual relations outside of marriage. In
addition, while most European settlers expressed shock at the ***ual
habits
of the native tribes and tried to convert them to what they believed to be
a superior Christian morality, Morton and his followers welcomed Indians
to
Merry Mount and openly had ***ual relations with them. In a further
affront
to Pilgrim values, Morton revived the pagan May Day festivities, complete
with the *****cally charged maypole. Merry Mount proved so threatening to
the Pilgrims' vision of social order that in 1628 they de****ted Morton
back
to England. When he later returned to Massachusetts Bay Colony, the
Puritan
authorities there imprisoned him under such severe conditions—he was kept
in irons, without adequate food and clothing, for a year—that Morton died
soon after his release.' Libertinism, paganism, and ***ual relations with
the Indians clearly had no place within the Puritan scheme, based as it
was
upon reestabli****ng the Christian family in the wilderness. /gas
Thomas Morton was a mere thorn in the side of Pilgrim and Puritan leaders,
but during the seventeenth century, these English colonists faced more
serious challenges to their goal of creating stable family life and
implementing the values of marital, reproductive ***uality. First, the
varied ***ual practices of the native peoples of North America, which both
fascinated and disturbed the settlers, offered possible alternatives to
European traditions. Second, and more challenging, demographic conditions
in the New World strongly affected family life. Climate and settlement
patterns facilitated the reestablishment of a family-centered ***ual life
in New England but delayed it in the Chesapeake colonies of Maryland and
Virginia. Only after several generations did social conditions in these
two
regions converge to the point that one may speak of a reproductive ***ual
system throughout the colonies. Thus, to understand the ***ual values
colonists brought with them and the obstacles to adopting them, it is
im****tant to begin this history by exploring the European, and especially
English, influence on America, the native American cultures that
confronted
European migrants, and the regional variations that shaped diverse ***ual
systems in the seventeenth century.
SOURCE: Intimate Matters A History of ***uality in America. John D"emilio
and Estelle B. FreedmanPerennial Library Harper and Eow Publishers (1989)
pp 3 - 4
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IN 1650, young Samuel Terry of Springfield, Massachusetts distressed his
neighbors when, during the Sabbath sermon, he stood outside the
meetinghouse "chafing his yard to provoak lust." Several lashes on the
back
may have dissuaded him from masturbating in public again, but in 1661
Samuel Terry endured another punishment for ***ual misconduct. Now
married,
his bride of five months gave birth to their first child, clear evidence
that the pair had indulged in premarital intercourse. A four-pound fine
was
not the last Terry would pay for defying the moral standards of his
community. In 1673 the court fined Terry and eight other men who had
performed an "immodest and beastly" play. Despite this history of ***ual
offenses, however, a sinner like Samuel Terry could command respect among
his peers. Terry not only served as a town constable, but, in addition,
the
court entrusted him with the custody of another man's infant son.' In
short, as long as he accepted punishment for his transgressions, Samuel
Terry remained a citizen in good standing.
The case of Samuel Terry allows us to refine the stereotype of the
American
colonists as prudish, ascetic, and anti***ual. This view has enjoyed so
much popularity in modern America that the term puritanical has come to
mean ***ually repressive. Not all colonists were Puritans, those
nonconforming, largely middle-class English men and women who attempted to
establish a community of saints in seventeenth-century New England.
Members
of the Anglican and Quaker churches, and migrants from the Netherlands,
Germany, and northern Ireland settled in the southern and middle colonies,
especially during the eighteenth century. Even among the Puritans and
their
Yankee descendants, ***uality exhibited more complexity than modern
assumptions about their repressiveness suggest.
SOURCE: Intimate Matters A History of ***uality in America. John D"emilio
and Estelle B. FreedmanPerennial Library Harper and Eow Publishers (1989)
:pp 15 - 16
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why
"a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.
Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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