Week 2 readings Hisotry 392 SPR 11

I was so perplexed of the injustices and mistreatment that the Puritan Church would impose on couples who were found guilty of adultery, bigotry, or having children out of wedlock.  The church members were so cruel with their punishments of whipping, hangings, execution on these simple folk. It really seem to be by the documents and essays previewed by Peiss that the colonists were trying there best to live according to the laws cast on them by the church.  The women and men would dedicate their life and bodies to the church and even in some way also claim there devotion to Christ by following all the rules and regulations.

Firstly, the women were seen mostly as objects and their sexuality was primarily linked to procreation and property of their husbands.  Even if the husband (the Chameleon Lover, Mr. Byrd) was in love with his wife and according to the Godbeer readings he would often times sleep around, and would satisfy his sexual needs with whomever he wanted.  If he was a member of the church and was found guilty of infidelities it was a simple punishment of 1 year away from his position and of course since he had some money fines would be imposed that would go into the church funds.  But, mostly interesting but not surprising to me was how some upper class white men and even young sons would be less prosecuting by the church and state for their acts of violence against women of color or their servants.  If a young man from a well to do family assaulted and raped a servant it was considered just a sexual whim that he need to fulfill to become a healthy adult man and since he was  heir to the property and had upper class status it was he had every right to do as he pleased.

The documents in Peiss about the English migrant Mr. Hall who was brought to court for cross dressing was very interesting to me because of the violation of privacy and his identity by his neighbors, church and state imposed on him.  They each  had their turn in actually stripping him of his clothing to view his genitals and inspect his body to verify his gender.  Both Godbeer and Peiss recount how this person lived since the age of 12 learned to do needlework's (dressed like a woman), and also fight in the war (dressed like a man). After the war he tried to dress in women clothes and live as a servant in a home with much disapproval to the community.  He was never really charged with anything in court because the Governor was afraid his gender identities might initiate acts of sodomy which was against the church teachings for men and women  It was was unnatural and would not serve the purposes of procreation which was the only licit way of condoning sexual relations.  It was not easy for the courts to charge him with any wrong doing because he dress according to what type of work he would find.  I am sure that there still exist many issues with transvestism today because our society has constructed a perception on how a male or female should dress to fit into society, but am glad that such violation of persons DOES NOT occur in courts today.