Locating Queer Female Adolescents in the Early American Republic

Historians of the early modern period seeking to find evidence of same-sex sexuality prior to the nominalization of identity categories such as homosexual and lesbian often turn to court records hoping to find prosecutions of acts presently recognized as queer.  This strategy has proven reasonably effective for capturing incidences of men engaged in same-sex acts, however women appear far less frequently in the records.  Historians such as Emma Donoghue have recovered extensive cultural productions about female same-sex sexuality prior to 1800, which suggest that the absence of women in the court records cannot be attributed to an absence of female same-sex sexuality.  But historians are left with the question of where to find the social history of early modern queer girls and women. This paper seeks to open up new venues of historical research by suggesting that itinerant teaching in the early national United States provided a milieu in which adolescent women could express same-sex desires.  Following the American Revolution, the cause of women’s education gained increasing popularity in the United States.  Between the 1780s and 1820s, in New England especially, young women often in their late teens moved into the field of teaching, some moving outside of parental supervision to board with unrelated families in distant towns.  Through letters and visits, these young women created space for the expression of same-sex desire.  The milieu was short-lived however, as a shift toward male teachers and the institutionalization of female education in residential seminaries restricted prior opportunities.  The paper will first examine the letters exchanged among a small group of Massachusetts female teachers during the 1790s to exemplify how itinerancy could operate as a queer space, then theorize about new possibilities for future research.