1860-1869
From OutHistory
Jump to navigationJump to searchTimeline: 1860 through 1869
1860
1860
1860
- As early as 1860 a parody of Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" attacked the poet by picturing him as an effeminate dry-goods clerk. See Postcards: Masculine Women, Feminine Men; early-20th c.
1860, January-July
1860, February 28
Louisville (Kentucky) Democrat: John Haskell arrested for “forcible sodomy”, February 28, 1860
1860, March
- Walt Whitman is in Boston preparing third edition of Leaves of Grass, the first to include a section of "Calamus" poems about men's intimacies with men, and the "Children of Adam" section about the intimacies of men and women. See Whitman, Symonds, Carpenter: "In paths untrodden," 1859-1924
1860, March 17
- Ralph Waldo Emerson meets Walt Whitman on Boston Common and warns the New York poet about publishing some of the sexual poems planned for his new edition of Leaves of Grass.[1]
1860, March 19
- Fred Vaughn, in New York, writes to Walt Whitman in Boston, urging Whitman to keep in touch with him, and maintain their earlier intimacy.[2]
1860, March 23
- Ralph Waldo Emerson lectures in New York City and discusses intimate friendships between men.[3]
1860, March 27
- Fred Vaughn, in New York, writes to Walt Whitman in Boston.[4]
1860, April 18
- An Iowa legal case, Estes v. Carter, involving charges of slander through words accusing "sodomy" (unspecified in the brief, published legal report) is appealed and receives a verdict in the state's Supreme Court.[5]
1860, April 30
- Fred Vaughn, in New York, writes to Walt Whitman in Boston.[6]
1860, May
- Walt Whitman publishes third edition of Leaves of Grass.[7]
1860, May 7
- Fred Vaughn, in New York, writes to Walt Whitman in Boston.[8]
1860, May 10
- Vanity Fair magazine publishes "Our Agricultural Column: Crop Prospects for 1860", a parody of articles on crops that in this case actually speculates on the prospects of poetry and literature that year. This includes a section on "Calamus" and the statement: "an unusually active market for Calamus is expected this season. The editors of Vanity Fair and Whitman's writer friends in New York apparently knew that in the new edition of his Leaves the poet would introduce the calamus as the primary symbol of intimacy between men.[9]
- The Vanity Fair article section titled "Calamus" opens: "There will be a heavy crop of this health-giving root. We observed its graceful blossoms in many a meadow." This may possible contain a coded sexual reference for those in-the-know, suggesting that the writer had seen erotic acts, implicitly, of men with men, committed in multiple meadows.
1860, May 19
- The Saturday Press publishes an extensive review of the new edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass.[10]
1860, December
- A North Carolina legal case, State v. Gray, refers to "buggery," unspecified, in a case of "carnally knowing and abusing an infant female under the age of ten years".[11]
1860, December 11
- A legal case decided in Hawaii, Enos v. Sowle, involves "sodomy", man with "boy" or "youth" (age unspecified).[12]
1860, December 14
- A legal case, decided in Hawaii, Vieira v. Sowle, involvles "sodomy" of a man with a "boy" (age unspecified).[13]
1861
1862
1862, May
- Fred Vaughn writes to Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C.[14]
1862, May 18
- The Richmond [Virginia] Daily Dispatch, in the Confederate capital, reports a large increase in "prostitutes of both sexes".[15]
1863
1863, winter
- James J. Archer, a Confederate General, is held prisoner on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, Ohio, and is alleged to have participated in a drinking party with "Captain Taylor" in which "they all got drunk together and got to hugging each other and saying that they had slept together many a time."[16]
1864
1864, March 20
- John J. Willey, of the First Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, quartered in Brandy Station, Virgina, writes to his wife about an all-male ball in which some of the men dressed as women.[17]
1864, April 3
- Oscar Cram of the Eleventh Massachusetts Infantry writes to a correspondent, "Ellen", telling her about an all-male ball that recently occurred.[18]
1865
1865, April 21
- William Anderson, a sailor, and Henry Smith, a petty officer on the USS SHamrock, docked in North Carolina, are charged with "holding improper indecent intercourse."[19]
1865, April 23
- John C. Smith and Louis Jerut, of the USS Shamrock, docked in North Carolina, are charged with "improper and indecent intercourse with each other."[20]
1865, October 30
- Seaman Henry Williams and ordinary seaman William Steward, of the Muscota, docked in Key West, Florida, are charged with an "unnatural crime", unspecified.[21]
1866
1867
1867, February 9
1868
1868
- End of intimacy between Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus, two African American women, 1859-1868. See: Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus: "No kisses is like youres," 1859-1868
1868, May 6
1869
1869, Fall
Next: 1870-1879
Notes
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 126
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 125.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 126. WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE MORE DETAIL ABOUT THIS!=JNK
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 126.
- ↑ 10 IA 400 (Sup. Ct.) (1860 Apr 18)
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 129
- ↑ http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/waltwhitman.html Library of Congres
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 129.
- ↑ Robert Scholnick, "'An Unusually Active Market for Calamus': Whitman, Vanity Fair, and the Fate of Humor in a Time of War, 1860-1863", Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, Volume 19, Number 3 (Winter 2002) pages 148-181; the reference in question is on page 162.
- ↑ Scholnick, "Unusually", page 162.
- ↑ 8 Jones (N.C.) 170 (1860, Dec)
- ↑ 2 HA 332 (1860, Dec 11)
- ↑ 2 HA 346 (1860, Dec 14)
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 136.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 134.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 137.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 135.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 136.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 134.
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 134
- ↑ Katz, Love Stories, 134.
