Individual rights are synonymous with the American Revolution. Whereas most of the debates that constructed as much as the revolution centered round taxes, a little-known authorized controversy from the period means that the crown and colonists additionally differed when it got here to LGBTQ+ rights.
Serving with the 18th Regiment of Foot in Philadelphia, the British military chaplain Robert Newburgh was accused of getting had sexual relations with a person – or because it was identified on the time, buggery. Viewing his standing inside the regiment as undermined, Newburgh sought recourse in quite a lot of court docket instances culminating with a court docket martial in 1774 – the yr earlier than the revolution.
Nearly two and a half centuries later, the Jap Michigan College historical past professor John McCurdy got here throughout the story and noticed parallels between Newburgh’s protection of his rights and the colonists’ standing up for theirs. To McCurdy, it was an opportunity to light up a not often documented LGBTQ+ narrative inside the revolutionary interval, in his new ebook, Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh.
“The American Revolution is a way more difficult course of than we predict,” McCurdy says. “The expertise of the American Revolution is … much more various,” together with with regard to girls, Black individuals, Native People – and LGBTQ+ people.
McCurdy calls his ebook “a approach to consider people who find themselves very a lot part of our tradition and nation. What’s their story within the revolution? What guarantees and prospects did the revolution maintain for males like Robert Newburgh?”
With the Trump administration about to return to workplace, McCurdy addressed the relevance his ebook may need for the upcoming political second in America.
“I feel [Trump] all the time defies expectations on LGBTQ+ points,” McCurdy says. “His treasury secretary designate is an overtly homosexual man … he could be the highest-ranking gay within the capital at that time. On the identical time, in fact, Trump and a few of his companions have engaged in some actually nasty homophobia. This can be a contradiction that’s all the time been there with completely different individuals and completely different opinions.”
A revolutionary conflict scholar, McCurdy is himself a homosexual man.
“I’ve lengthy needed to write down a ebook about homosexuality, particularly on this period,” McCurdy says, calling Newburgh’s case “an actual discover” and including: “There was no approach I may write a ebook about homosexuality within the American Revolution and never come out within the introduction.” Of his identification, he says: “I don’t suppose it colours my notion of the case. I attempted to be as trustworthy as doable and never declare something that I can’t again up within the paperwork.”
The ebook is a window into differing perceptions of homosexuality throughout the Atlantic within the 18th century.
“With homosexuality in Britain and the US”. McCurdy says, “after 1780, the British had been way more acute and punitive. Legal guidelines elevated, executions elevated … within the colonies, lots of people seemed the opposite approach.
“I’m not saying it was OK to be homosexual [in the colonies] within the 18th century,” McCurdy provides. “However there was an curiosity in not asking too many questions.”
Newburgh, who by no means married or had youngsters, grew up in a well-to-do Protestant household in Eire. Graduating from Trinity School, he was well-versed in literature and an achieved horseback rider. He embarked upon a profession within the Anglican priesthood. But he was dogged by accusations of getting intercourse with a male servant who was additionally his foster brother. Throughout a monthlong keep in Sligo, they allegedly slept in the identical mattress. In keeping with the ebook, that they had finished so since Newburgh’s childhood, however it was a typical follow and Newburgh additionally cited his persistent sickness as a cause.
Whilst Newburgh efficiently utilized for a chaplaincy within the British military, the accusations lingered. One who knew of them was his countryman Thomas Batt, a former officer within the 18th, which was nicknamed the Royal Irish. When Batt discovered who could be the brand new chaplain of the regiment, he despatched a condemnatory letter to Newburgh.
Batt acquired to Philadelphia forward of Newburgh, arrange a liquor retailer and alerted the regiment’s captains. Quickly the chaplain felt that he had turn out to be the goal of disrespect, together with jokes at his expense. His makes an attempt to clear his title triggered a number of authorized instances and divided the regiment.
The captains had been nearly unanimous of their opposition to Newburgh, whereas lower-ranking officers tended to assist the chaplain. There was additionally a divide in how they felt in regards to the patriot trigger. The captains opposing Newburgh stayed trustworthy British troopers throughout the revolution, whereas the junior officers abandoned to the patriots and remained within the colonies post-independence.
One enlisted man’s stance modified over time: Pte Nicholas Gaffney. He had quarreled together with his superior, Capt John Shee, and pursued authorized recourse. The next court docket martial initially went badly for Gaffney – till his techniques modified mid-proceedings. Shee – accurately – noticed on this the hand of Newburgh. The chaplain in the end masterminded Gaffney’s case behind the scenes, to no avail. The non-public was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, a punishment halted at 600 on account of fears over its harshness. Gaffney turned towards his benefactor, by way of testimony in a court docket martial of Newburgh that the chaplain had known as at his personal request, in search of to clear his status.
Because the ebook particulars, Newburgh stumbled over representing himself – till it was time for the closing arguments. He invoked hovering beliefs of the Enlightenment, which had challenged the divine proper of kings with a name for particular person liberties. The decision was a combined bag – Newburgh was responsible of some costs, acquitted of others, and obtained a six-month suspension with out pay. Litigious to the final minute, he made appeals, together with to Gen Gage, and at last had his sentence commuted after three months.
By this time, members of the Royal Irish had been passing by way of New Jersey and New York en path to the hotbed of Massachusetts; some would struggle and die within the early battles of the revolution. Not so for Newburgh. He initially stayed in New York, the place his court docket martial had taken place. Then, as tensions rose within the metropolis, he opted to return to Europe – without end, because it turned out. Through the revolution, he additionally retired from the army.
Whereas Newburgh in the end left North America, McCurdy holds that the chaplain’s legacy stays, by way of LGBTQ+ rights.
“For me, the ebook is a really optimistic story, past the army,” McCurdy says. “I do suppose there’s this American custom of sexual liberation … We have now not simply turn out to be this open, accepting society within the late twentieth century. There’s an extended custom of the US being extra open to sexual minorities than we’d have assumed.”
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