Sexual Mores in Maine in the early 1800s
Martha Ballard’s diary gives us some interesting insights into the sexual mores in Maine at the turn of the 18th to 19th century. Quite a contrast the world Jane Austin portrayed. While the legal system was unremittingly patriarchal, the social system seemed to have more flexibility. Premarital sex and unwed pregnancy did not “ruin” a woman or her family as it would in Jane Austin’s England at the same time. This topic is covered in depth in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwifes Tale and I discuss her findings in the video below.
Also here is a UPI article on the same subject “Historian: Early Americans led lusty sex lives”