Trans History: Federalist Era

CONTENT WARNINGS: ⛓️ Slavery, 🚓 Prison

After the civil unrest and turmoil of the American Revolution and following the confederation period, the United States settled into a more relaxed period from 1788 to 1801 referred to occasionally as the Federalist Era. The Federalist Party was in power under George Washington and John Adams, using nationalism and the failure of the Articles of Confederation to establish a strong central government.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, who was known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was an enslaved Black writer who was taken from present-day Nigeria to the Americas. In 1766, Equiano purchased his freedom and became a leading figure within the British abolitionist movement in London through the Sons of Africa – and his most notable work, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, became widely successful after publication in 1789. The Interesting Narrative sold so well that it contributed towards helping pass the British Slave Trade Act 1807 which officially abolished slavery in the British Empire.

The Interesting Narrative also sold in the United States of America, even though Equiano is associated with the British abolition movement. Opposition to slavery existed before the founding of the United States, and Equiano’s work inspired many American abolitionists. However, The Interesting Narrative describes multiple same-sex relationships Equiano had with other men – although this was quickly edited in later publications to fit heterosexual ideals.

“There was on board the ſhip a young lad who had never been at ſea before, about four or five years older they myſelf: his name was Richard Baker. He was a native of America, had received an excellent education, and was of a moſf amiable temper. Soon after I went on board he ſhewed me a great deal of partiality and attention, and in return I grew extremely fond of him. We at length became inſeparable; and, for the ſpace of two years, he was of very great uſe to me, and was my conſtant companion and inſtructor. Although this dear youth had many ſlaves of his own, yet he and I have gone through many ſufferings together on ſhipboard; and we have many nights lain in each other’s boſoms when we were in great diſtreſs.” – The Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano

Equiano lived a great deal of his life in the Americas, and his published work shows that same-sex relationships were not uncommon among enslaved people – especially since they were not allowed to marry or pursue formal relationships like their captors. If he had access to today’s language, Equiano would likely have identified as bisexual. We can also use Equiano’s experiences to cement the fact that queerness was purposely censored in the Americas and Britain since Mott later revised The Interesting Narrative to depict Equiano’s romantic love as purely platonic.

America’s First Penitentiary: Queers Behind Bars

The Federalist Era marks the beginning of ‘real’ America as its own nation, which includes the use of the American prison system. In 1790, Philadelphia established the first penitentiary while it served as the national capitol, offering a replacement for capital punishment for crime at the new Walnut Street Prison. However, solitary confinement was chosen as the primary punishment for crime – cemented when Reverend Louis Dwight began a campaign over the rise in queer sex in New England and an all-time low of sodomy arrests. Jen Manion writes in Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America, “Pennsylvania officials didn’t really care why men desired each other, especially while the entire prison system was in chaos. But they seized upon this critique, the idea that men – crowded together in cells – corrupted each other at night. These officials launched a full-scale campaign in favor of complete and total solitary confinement.”

This abuse of solitary confinement against LGBTQIA+ people is an American tradition. In 2015, Black and Pink found that 85% of queer and transgender people behind bars were put in solitary – some out of choice for personal safety and others as an unjust punishment. In comparison, just 6% of the general prison and jail population is held in solitary confinement.

AFAB During Federalism

Queer women, as well as women as a whole, are left to the footnotes when discussing history. In 1793, Moreau de Saint Méry wrote about his experiences while living in the United States – breaking the historical belief that same-sex attraction didn’t exist among early American women: “Although in general one is conscious of widespread modesty in Philadelphia the customs are not particularly pure, and the disregard on the part of some parents for the manner in which their daughters form relations to which they, the parents, have not given their approval is an encouragement of indiscretions which, however, are not the result of love, since American women are not affectionate… I am going to say something that is almost unbelievable. These women, without real love and without passions, give themselves up at an early age to the enjoyment of themselves; and they are not at all strangers to being willing to seek unnatural pleasures with persons of their own sex.”

It’s interesting that Méry is so stunned by this development – his homeland, France, is just as queer as the rest of Europe. While transness was not accepted, Méry lived during the same period as Chevalière d’Éon – so why did Méry find queer American women ‘almost unbelievable’?

In 1799, Samuel Johnson was arrested for housebreaking and sentenced to three years in Walnut Street Prison. When Johnson was arrested, he was discovered to be assigned female at birth yet purposely dressed and identified as a man. Johnson “had accustomed herself to wear men’s cloaths for several years,” and while he was required to be incarcerated with the female population at Walnut Street, he was allowed to continue dressing as a man.

W. H. Smith Performs in Salem

Around the year 1800, Salem hosted the United Novelty Company in Massachusetts – a show that featured a number of performers, including female impersonator W. H. Smith. While the exact date of the show is lost, it establishes the very beginning of drag performances in the United States. While theatrical cross-dressing and impersonation existed for centuries elsewhere in the world like Britain and Japan, it hadn’t found its footing in the Americas.

Smith likely performed in the early 1800s, during the rise of America’s circus obsession. Performances from impersonators like Smith would eventually lead to the true origin of drag culture and balls by the mid-19th century.

The Adventures of Henry and Thompson

Alexander Henry the Younger traveled with David Thompson throughout modern-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington in addition to his travels further north in Canada. His journeys would later be published as the Exploration and Adventures among the Indians on the Red, Saskatchewan, Missouri, and Columbia Rivers. Henry and Thompson dated an entry on January 2nd, 1801 when they met a Native American man who “pretends to be womanish, and dresses as such.”

As mentioned in previous articles, Native Americans were well-versed in gender queerness – which disturbed the colonists who met them. During these early years of American expansion into the West, explorers were focused on documenting their travels rather than forcing Indigenous Americans to convert. They wrote the man’s “father, who is a great chief amongst the Saulteurs, cannot persuade him to act like a man.”

Knowledge Check

Philadelphia created the first penitentiary in the United States, which later established widespread use of solitary confinement against LGBTQIA+ prisoners, at _____.
a. Castle Island Penitentiary
b. Walnut Street Prison
c. Joliet Correctional Center
d. Sing Sing Correctional Facility
–
Olaudah Equiano was a Black bisexual enslaved man who purchased his freedom before living in _____ and publishing The Interesting Narrative.
a. Richmond, Virginia
b. Essaka, Nigeria
c. Bridgetown, Barbados
d. London, Britain
–
W.H. Smith was one of the first female impersonators to perform in the United States, appearing at a _____ in Salem, Massachusetts.
a. Church Revival
b. Art Exhibition
c. Town Hall
d. Circus
–
Fill in the Blank: Despite being discovered as biologically female, _____ was allowed to continue dressing as a man while incarcerated at Walnut Street Prison.
–
True or False: In Exploration and Adventures, Alexander Henry the Younger met a two-spirit man who he convinced to give up gender fluidity.

ANSWER KEY

1. B / 2. D / 3. D / 4. SAMUEL JOHNSON / 5. FALSE

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