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THE LIMIT OF FREEDOM: FREE LOVE CONTROVERSIES IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY UNITED STATES by Satomi Minowa A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Summer 2017 © 2017 Satomi Minowa All Rights Reserved THE LIMIT OF FREEDOM: FREE LOVE CONTROVERSIES IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY UNITED STATES by Satomi Minowa Approved: __________________________________________________________ Arwen P. Mohun, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of History Approved: __________________________________________________________ George H. Watson, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Ann L. Ardis, Ph.D. Senior Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Rebecca L. Davis, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Anne M. Boylan, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Christine Leigh Heyrman, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Patricia Cline Cohen, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout the years of my project, I am indebted to the expertise and encouragement of many people. I am most fortunate to have Rebecca L. Davis as my dissertation advisor. Rebecca has been the kindest and intellectually most generous mentor, and I am proud to be her first advisee. My dissertation committee members Anne M. Boylan, Christine Leigh Heyrman, and Patricia Cline Cohen provided me with criticisms and suggestions, which helped me improve my drafts. I am also grateful to cohorts and friends at the history department. I would particularly like to thank the wonderful members of my writing group: Alison Kreitzer, Nalleli Guillen, Michelle Everidge Anderson, Anastasia Day, Hillary Neben, and Anna Lacy. I am lucky to have the friendship of Ai Hisano and Yuki Oda during my graduate study at Delaware. I extend my thanks to countless people who taught and supported me at various points of my development as a scholar. I am most appreciative of the decade-long mentorship of Yoshiyuki Kido, who has guided me since I was an undergraduate student at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. My friend and writing buddy Masaya Sato read early drafts of my chapters and offered me constructive comments. I am grateful to the librarians and archivists of following institutions, for aiding me with research assistance and allowing me to use their collections; the University of Michigan, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the John Jay Library of Brown University, the Fine Arts Library of Harvard University, and the Library of Congress. iv The Rotary Foundation kindly funded my study during the first year in the graduate program. I would also like to thank the graduate office and the history department at the University of Delaware for their financial support of my project. I cannot fully express in word my gratitude toward my family in Japan. My parents, Shinichiro and Shu Minowa have always been supportive about my decisions and proud of me. I dedicate this dissertation to them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 THE ENEMIES OF RELIGION AND PURITY: CONTROVERSIES OVER FREE LOVE IN ANTEBELLUM POPULAR PRINT CULTURE .... 19 Stephen Pearl Andrews and the “Free-Love Club” in New York City ............ 24 Free Love in Popular Discourses ...................................................................... 38 “Free Love” and Antebellum Reform Movements .......................................... 50 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 65 2 THE MULTIPLICITY OF “FREE LOVE” DISCOURSES ............................ 67 American Fourierism and Free Love ................................................................ 70 The Meanings of Free Love: Marriage as Sexual Slavery and Legalized Prostitution ....................................................................................................... 75 Internal Conflicts among Free Lovers .............................................................. 89 Multiple Meanings of “Free Love”: Spiritualism and the Oneida Community ..................................................................................................... 101 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 118 3 THE POLITICAL USE OF “FREE LOVE” IN SECTIONAL DEBATES OVER SLAVERY .......................................................................................... 120 “Free Love” in Political Debates over Abolition and Disunion ..................... 124 Race in Anti-“Free Love” Rhetoric ................................................................ 137 Free Love and Miscegenation ........................................................................ 145 Free Love Rhetoric in the 1860 Election and the Civil War .......................... 152 Reconstruction, and the Threat of Miscegenation and Free Love .................. 160 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 169 4 FREE LOVE AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS ..................................................... 171 Women’s Rights, Divorce, and Free Love ..................................................... 173 Victoria C. Woodhull and the National Woman Suffrage Association .......... 188 The Meanings of Free Love for Women ........................................................ 204 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 209 vi 5 CRUSADE AGAINST THE “NATIONAL SIN”: FREE LOVE AND FEDERAL CENSORSHIP ............................................................................. 211 The Beecher-Tilton Scandal and the Creation of the Comstock Law in Postbellum America ....................................................................................... 215 Ezra and Angela Heywood: Battle over Free Love and Access to Sexual Knowledge ...................................................................................................... 232 Anti-Vice Crusade and Antidemocratic Impulses in the Post-Reconstruction Era ................................................................................................................... 250 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 258 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 260 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 264 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 “The Black Republicans at Their Devotions,” 1856. Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia ......................................................... 129 Figure 2 Louis Maurer, “The Great Republican Reform Party,” Currier & Ives, New York, 1856. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. ....................... 130 Figure 3 Louis Maurer, “The Great Republican Party Going to the Right House,” Currier & Ives, New York, ca. 1860. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. ........................................................................................... 155 Figure 4 Stephen Pearl Andrews. Courtesy of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library. ......................................................... 155 viii ABSTRACT The free love movement of the nineteenth century was one of the most radical and controversial efforts to reshape marriage and sexuality in American history. Hailed by supporters as a pathway to sexual equality, and derided by critics as the perverted cause of sexual deviants, free love occupies a fascinating chapter in changing ideas about gender, morality, and sexual rights. By illuminating public discussions about free love among both free love’s advocates and antagonists between the 1850s and 1880s, this dissertation demonstrates the extent of nineteenth-century Americans’ preoccupation with the notion of “free love.” Despite free love’s