Rape in Revolutionary America, 1760-1815

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dc.contributor.authorSnidal, Michelle
dc.contributor.supervisorCleves, Rachel Hope
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-30T23:58:58Z
dc.date.copyright2021en_US
dc.date.issued2021-08-30
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Historyen_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractRape had an indelible effect on the American Revolutionary era. Using trial testimonies and depositions, newspapers, and literary sources, this thesis argues that there was a level of continuity between peacetime and wartime rape characterized by the assaulters’ modus operandi and rape’s ideological exploitation. Eighteenth-century Anglo-American society dictated that rape, or “carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly against her will,” was only a crime against virtuous white women. The gendered and racialized ways pre-revolutionary society identified and prosecuted rape influenced how rapists conducted their assaults. Women had to prove their sexual morality, that penile penetration and male ejaculation occurred, and that they sought help immediately after the assault to prosecute their attackers. During the war, rape became an important metaphor. Wartime publishers and propagandists used reports and victim testimonies as evidence of British immorality and to justify political independence. The rape of America subsumed individual atrocities. The nationalization of women’s sexual virtue continued into the new Republic. Artists and writers memorialized the Revolution through explicitly sexualized narratives and sentimental novels that emphasized female sexual morality. Women’s sexual virtue was linked with the stability of the Republic. This thesis utilizes a diverse historiography to highlight the intersectional correlations between rape and eighteenth-century patriarchal power in America.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/13336
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectrapeen_US
dc.subjectsexual violenceen_US
dc.subjectsexual assaulten_US
dc.subjectAmerican Revolutionen_US
dc.subjectcarnalen_US
dc.subjectwomenen_US
dc.subjectBritishen_US
dc.subjectwaren_US
dc.subjectravishen_US
dc.subjectvirtueen_US
dc.subjectseductionen_US
dc.subjectEarly Americaen_US
dc.subjectsentimentalen_US
dc.subjectmoralityen_US
dc.subjectpropagandaen_US
dc.subjectnationalizeden_US
dc.subjectideologyen_US
dc.subjectRepublicen_US
dc.subjectpatriarchal poweren_US
dc.subjectclassen_US
dc.subjectslaveryen_US
dc.subjectindependenceen_US
dc.subjectsymbolismen_US
dc.subjectintersectionalen_US
dc.subjectraceen_US
dc.subjectgenderen_US
dc.titleRape in Revolutionary America, 1760-1815en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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