215 A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America

We tend to view gay marriage as a cultural and legal development of the 21st century.

But did you know that some early Americans lived openly as same-sex married couples?

Rachel Hope Cleves, a Professor of History at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and author of Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, reveals the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, women who lived as a married couple in Weybridge, Vermont between 1807 and 1851.

This episode originally posted as Episode 013.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/215

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 004: Thomas Foster, Sex and the Founding Fathers
• Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
• Episode 032: Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, One Colonial Woman’s World
• Episode 120: Marcia Zug, A History of Mail Order Brides in Early America
• Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, House Divided: The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House

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