The church’s power began to wane in the late 1700s, and communities began abolishing church courts, which had previously heard cases of divorce and sexual crimes. The United States entered a period of practical, utilitarian philosophy (as exemplified in Benjamin Franklin’s maxims, such as “Early to bed and early to rise. . . ”), which stressed
the individual’s right to pursue personal happiness. People began to speak more openly about sexuality and romantic love, and women began to pay more attention to appearance and sexual appeal. Children stopped consulting parents about marriage, and some young women simply became pregnant when they wanted to marry. By the late 18 th century, as many as one-third of all brides in some parts of New England were pregnant (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988).
This newfound sexual freedom had many results. In 1720, prostitution was relatively rare, but by the late 18th century, angry mobs were attacking brothels in cities all over the eastern seaboard (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988). Contraception, such as early condoms, was now readily available (Gamson, 1990), and newspapers and almanacs often advertised contraceptive devices and concoctions to induce abortion. The birth rate dropped, and abortion rates rose through the use of patent medicines, folk remedies, selfinduced abortion by inserting objects into the uterus, and medical abortions. Within marriage, sexuality was much celebrated, and in many surviving diaries and letters from that era, couples speak of passion and longing for each other. Extramarital affairs were not uncommon, and some of the diaries quite explicitly record extramarital sexual passion.