Sex Work in the American Revolution
episode
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
41 min
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 4 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What role did camp followers play in the American Revolutionary War?
Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history? Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? Well sign up to History Hit where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries plus new releases every week covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe Hello, my lovely Betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. How are you? It's so nice to see you again. Welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the podcast where we get smutty and naughty, but we all pretend that we're learning things at the same time, so it's fine.
But before we can do any of that, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adult things in an adult way, covering a range of subjects that used to be an adult too. Right, proceed at your own caution. It's 1776 and I've snuck into a British army camp just outside of New York. The Revolutionary War is raging and it seems like these Americans don't really want to be ruled by a king. That's me just pausing here to let you fill in your own punchline. But here amongst the British camps, as well as the men packed in tents, there are a few women here too. These are the camp followers. Some are the partners and wives of soldiers, some are here to do laundry, some are here to wash socks, and some are here to sell sex.
Sex work is a common and often under-talked about feature of war, except for me, I talk about it a lot. And there was a lot of it in the War of Independence, let me tell you. And we shall be exploring that and finding out more. Let's do it!
Thank you.
Hello and welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the history of sex, scandal and society with me, Kate Lister. Sex and war go together like, well, war and killing people, really. It's an incredibly common pairing throughout history. Wherever you find war, you're going to find sex. I imagine that there's something about impending doom that will make you rethink your position on casual sex that would do it. But how was sex and sexuality a feature of the American War of Independence? How did American and British attitudes to queerness differ at the time? And why was the New York red light district called the Holy Ground? Well, today we're joined by the marvellous John McCurdy, professor at Eastern Michigan University, who was a specialist in sexuality during America's War of Independence.
And he is going to help us find out more. And whilst I'm here, I wanted to let you know one more time about the two Betwixt the Sheets live shows that are happening in May. There's one in Edinburgh. I think that we're running out of tickets for that one, so you'll have to be quick. And another one in London, and they're getting a bit thin on the ground too. But tickets are available at feign.co.uk. Just search for Betwixt the Sheets. And we will see you there. Right, without further ado, let's crack on.
Hello and welcome to Betwixt the Sheets. It's only Professor John McCurdy. How are you doing?
I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking.
How's everything stateside?
Oh, a little complicated, but we're carrying on the best we can.
I ask that because, well, one of your areas of specialism is the American War of Independence, and that's what we're here to talk about today. Just give us the nod, John, and we can probably send the king over to take back control.
Well, I think we kind of have the king thing covered currently.
Oh, no! For anybody that is listening, well, we have so many listeners in America, so they will certainly know what the War of Independence was. But it's not something that's widely covered on the British curriculum. So could you, before we get into the smutty naughtiness of it all, could you just give us a bit of an understanding of the War of Independence, what that was?
Sure, sure. Yeah. So, you know, just to give you a really brief sort of overview.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What role did camp followers play in the American Revolutionary War?
0:00–4:31
2
How did sex work intersect with race and slavery during the Revolution?
4:31–7:59
3
What were the attitudes towards queerness in the army camps?
7:59–11:19
4
How did the American War of Independence change societal views on sex?
11:19–14:36
5
What were the living conditions like for sex workers in army camps?
14:36–17:47
6
How did military leaders respond to the presence of sex workers?
17:47–21:24
7
What were the health implications of sex work during the Revolutionary War?
21:24–26:11
8
How did the war impact the future of sex work in America?
26:11–41:55