The Backstory: Sex Secrets of the 18th Century

You think sex in the 18th century was all about being shy and virtuous? Not so much. Wait until you hear about the percentage of women who were pregnant before their wedding day. The Revolutionary War . . was actually on the cusp of a sexual revolution!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So this July, the United States celebrates her two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary. That moment in time changed everything about politics.
But what about personal lives and sexual freedom? Did you
know that in eighteenth century New England as many as
forty percent of brides were pregnant before they got married.
I'm Patty Steele. Sex and the lead up to the

(00:22):
Revolution was a lot wilder than we thought. That's next
on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. When you
hear the word sex and revolution in the same sentence,
you probably think we're going to talk about the sexual
revolution of the nineteen sixties. But here we are about

(00:44):
to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
American Revolution. We know the battles they fought, but we
have to ask ourselves what were their private lives and
their sex lives like back in those days. Sex was
a complicated thing for folks back in the eighteenth century.
On the one hand, there was a powerful mix of

(01:04):
expectations based on religion, society, and individual needs and desires.
But on the other hand, you have to couple that
with the fact that they had the same basic desires
humans have had from day one and still have problem
is they had to deal with pretty much no ability
to prevent pregnancy, so you had a lot of taboo

(01:25):
stuff going on, made all the more exciting in a
lot of cases because it was taboo. Now, it turns
out in the early seventeen hundreds, pre marital sex and
even same sex relationships were a lot more common than
you would think. Marriage was certainly the goal, but pre
marital activities like bundling were allowed, where the couple would

(01:46):
sleep in the same bed so they could enjoy a
little physical intimacy, but it was done with a thing
called a bundling board, which was placed between them to
prevent them from going too far. Now, apparently the bundling
board words weren't exactly fool proof, because records show that
up to forty percent of New England brides were pregnant

(02:07):
before their wedding. That was only whispered about, but it
was documented by marriage and birth records and it fed
the gossip mill. But women who were sexually assertive were
kind of common. Then, for whatever reason, things took a
conservative turn late in the seventeen hundreds, especially for wealthy
white women who were expected to be quote virtuous wives

(02:30):
and Republican mothers who would guide their husbands and raise
virtuous children. On the other hand, they believed women of
lower classes were a bit wilder and more prone to temptation.
Of course, men from a sexual standpoint were viewed as
more aggressive and less controlled, and that was simply accepted

(02:51):
when it came to sex between married couples or lovers.
You would have to wonder how they managed to get
down to business with all the fluffy clothing women in war,
the corsets, chemises, petty coats, hoopskirts, stockings, boots and dresses,
not to mention the gloves and the hats. And they
had acres of fabric for all that stuff. But the

(03:12):
funny thing is fashion historians say it would be pretty
easy for a woman to have sex without taking off
her clothes. The underwear women wore right up until the
twentieth century were split in the middle, so they could
go to the bathroom and also have sex. If you
were out in the garden on a romantic evening or
in a drawing room and you felt the passion, you

(03:35):
really didn't need to take off any clothing. Frequently, upper
class and upper middle class husbands and wives had separate bedrooms,
so sex was a little more alluring for them. They
are in the privacy of one of their bedrooms, they
could drop their dressing gowns and have that one another. Interestingly,
prostitution was really common during the eighteenth century, and that

(03:58):
profession had different classes as well. There was a hierarchy
of elite prostitutes at the top to serve wealthy men.
The top tier of these ladies who were called courtesans.
They were known for their beauty, style, wit, intelligence, and
love of men and sex, and they dressed exquisitely. There

(04:18):
were also kept mistresses, who were attached to and serviced
one aristocratic man at a time who took care of them.
And then there was the woman of fashion or the
lady of pleasure, who was in the upper echelons of
the sex trade. Wow. Love those names. Now beyond that
you had the women who serviced less wealthy men. It

(04:39):
was thought that these women needed the money due to
a lack of jobs for women in general, and the
men needed the gratification. Not so hard to imagine, right,
These ladies were known as harlots, whores, strumpets, and street walkers.
And finally, in the eighteenth century, close and often erotic
friendships between same sex folks was not all that uncommon.

(05:02):
In fact, some same sex couples referred to each other
as husband and wife and would even share beds and
write tantalizing letters to one another about their sex lives.
It's interesting to see that over long periods of history
there's kind of an ebb and flow when it comes
to romance and sexuality and how we view it. The

(05:22):
Revolutionary War itself made us more serious about believing in
a cause and living by a set of rules and
powerful beliefs. It brought on a less self indulgent attitude
in society here, and how that played out in their
sex lives continued to impact our society for a good
two hundred years. Hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele.

(05:45):
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Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production

(06:08):
of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks. The Elvis Durand Group and Steel
Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.
We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free
to reach out to me with comments and even story
suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with

(06:30):
Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.