In the mid-eighteenth century, prior to the events of the American Revolution, about one of every three young women who walked down the aisle to marry did so while with child, according to extant court and parish records.
This rate varies but slightly among the colonies, whether Puritan New England, Quaker Philadelphia or genteel Charleston. By comparison in England, the aptly named mother country, nearly 50% were pregnant when wed.
Colonial society often viewed marriage as a business contract and matches were usually arranged based on the fortune, social status, and earning ability of the future husband. Among the arrangers, love was something that would come later, if at all. Husbands and wives had duties to each other and together to the community, the raising of a family among them.
These attitudes stood little chance of prevailing against human nature and emotions. Formal courtship, engagement, and marriage certainly existed and were undoubtedly favored by parents whose children were of marriageable age, but the path was often strayed from through the distractions of hormonal development and physical proximity.
In America’s largest towns, all seaports, a thriving sex industry added to the daily pulse of life, and to the alarming rates of venereal disease. As of now, the pulpits raved against illicit and premarital sex. There were severe penalties for sexual crimes and adultery, but the risk of punishment was frequently outweighed by the promises of love and pleasure.
Sex in colonial America is an often misunderstood subject, shrouded in myth and a belief in a fictitious morality. Here are ten examples of sexual behavior and practices in colonial America.