Seduced, abandoned, and reborn: visions of youth in middle-class America, 1780-1850 PDF
Preview Seduced, abandoned, and reborn: visions of youth in middle-class America, 1780-1850
Seduced, Abandoned, and Reborn EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES Daniel K. Richter and Kathleen M. Brown, Series Editors Exploring neglected aspects ofour colonial, revolutionary, and earlynational historyand culture, EarlyAmerican Studies reinterprets familiar themes and events in fresh ways. Interdisciplinaryin character, andwith aspecial emphasis on the period from about 1600 to 1850, the series is published in partnership with the McNeil Centerfor EarlyAmerican Studies. Acomplete list ofbooks in the series is available from the publisher. Seduced, Abandoned, and Reborn Visions of Youth in Middle-Class America, 1780-1850 Rodney Hessinger PENN UniversityofPennsylvania Press Philadelphia Copyright© 2005 UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Allrightsreserved Printedinthe UnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Publishedby UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Philadelphia, Pennsylvania19104-4112 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Hessinger, Rodney. Seduced, abandoned, andreborn:visionsofyouthin middle-classArnerica,1780-1850/ RodneyHessinger. p. cm.- (EarlyAmericanstudies) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-8122-3879-6(cloth: alk.paper) 1. Youth-UnitedStates-HistorY-18thcentury. 2. Youth-UnitedStates-HistorY-19th century. 3. Youth-Booksandreading-UnitedStates-History. 4. Socialcontrol-United States-History. 5. Moraleducation-UnitedStates-History. 6. UnitedStates-Social conditions-18thcentury. 7. UnitedStates-Socialconditions-19thcentury. 8. United States-Moralconditions. I. Title. II. Series HQ796.H4652005 305.235'086220973-dc22 2005042228 In memory ofFrank Hessinger, Jr. This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction 1 "Victims at the Shrine ofLibertinism": Gender in the Seduction Tales ofthe Late Eighteenth Century 23 2 Victim ofSeduction orVicious Woman? Conceptions ofthe Prostitute at the Philadelphia Magdalen Societyand Beyond 44 3 "The Most Powerful Instrument ofCollege Discipline": The UniversityofPennsylvania and the Advent ofMeritocracyin the EarlyRepublic 69 4 HarvestingYouth: The Competition for Souls in EarlyNineteenth-CenturyPhiladelphia and Beyond 5 "The Young Man's Friend": Advice Manuals and the Dangerous Journeyto Self-MadeManhood 125 6 Private Libertines: Emergent Strategies for the Control ofMale Youth in Bourgeois America Conclusion 177 Notes 183 Bibliography 233 Index 249 Acknowledgments 253 This page intentionally left blank Introduction Recording his famous impressions of America in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville expressed surprise at the pervasiveness ofAmerican democracy. Its spirit had reached far beyond the realm ofpolitics, extend ing even into the traditional institution ofthe family. Commenting on the relations between parents and children, the French aristocrat and traveler observed that while "vestiges" of parental authority remained, they were exercisedonlyduringthe "firstyears ofchildhood."Adults rapidlyreleased restraints on theyoung: "As soon as theyoungAmerican approaches man hood, the ties offilial obedience are relaxed, daybyday." Youth were soon wholly independent: "at the close ofboyhood the man appears and begins to trace out his own path." In America, Tocqueville concluded, there was "strictly speaking, no adolescence."l His words were both perceptive and prophetic. Youth didlargelystand as adults in the earlyAmerican republic. The modern notion ofadolescence, conceived as a period ofprotected de pendency following childhood, would not take shape until the end ofthe nineteenth century.2 Ho\v had this occurred? Patriarchal control overyouth had eroded to an unprecedented extent in the earlyAmerican republic. To be sure, adults have always had some trouble ruling the young. Colonial America was no exception. By the late seventeenth century, ministers in New England al readyfelttheirgraspslipping,findingthemselvesdeliveringsexuallysugges tive sermonsjustto capturethe attentionofyouth.3Yetpowerfulinfluences were at work to uphold patriarchy in the colonial era. In subsistence farm communities, parents relied heavily on the labor oftheir sons and daugh ters. For this reason, parents were slow to give their children the means to establish their own families. With a highly restricted land market and few opportunities for wages, children had no choice but to wait patiently for parents to bestowpropertyonthembefore theycould set up ontheir own. In addition, village churches and courts steered the courting behavior of young adults. Puritan elders whipped youth for fornication, while Quaker men and women investigated young couples through committees oftheir
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