Who Scorned Temperance and Moral Reform?

The movements to curb alcohol use and stigmatize illicit sexual expression that gained traction in the 1830s were directly linked to new ideals of middle-class domesticity and the intensified religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening. But of course not everyone was won over. Considerable portions of one segment of the population in particular—young single men living away from home—embraced alcohol consumption and free sexual expression as enduring parts of their youthful camaraderie.

Historians of masculinity identify several features of 1830s society that contributed to the emergence of a boisterous subculture of disorderly young men. More than ever before, adolescent boys left their natal farming villages to take entry-level jobs far from home. They moved to commercial hubs and became shop clerks, secretaries, and typesetters. They delayed marriage into their middle twenties, waiting for sufficient economic success to support a family. This delay also extended time free from the responsibilities of family life.

Unlike earlier eras, when apprentices lived with watchful masters in a familial environment, young men now worked for wages and congregated in boardinghouses, often with minimal adult supervision. Long hours of work heightened the appeal of leisure entertainments. Taverns and saloons provided a space for male friends to gather, and in cities, theaters, dance halls, and brothels were additional options. All of these venues served alcohol to patrons, loosening inhibitions and promoting sociability.

Recent discoveries of scores of scurrilous newspapers, stored uncatalogued for years in venerable historical societies or found in attics by surprised descendants, have given historians a direct window into the world of this masculine subculture. This new genre of publications began to appear in the mid-1830s, trumpeting a distinctive oppositional voice to the standard newspapers of the day. They carried names such as the Owl and the Hawk and Buzzard (suggesting overhead flights that peer into private places); the Microscope, the Gleaner, the Paul Pry, the Censor, and the Whip (words conveying punishing exposure); and the Blade, the Satirist, the Loafer, the Flash, and the Rake (humorous self-descriptive labels). Known sites of publication include Boston; Albany, New York; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; and the smaller towns of Rochester, New York; and Manchester, New Hampshire. No doubt there were more; this journalistic craze erupted around 1835, generated excitement, and then burned out around 1845. The editors were nearly all youths in their early twenties.

The salacious weeklies combined humor, gossip, and scandal in varying proportions. They featured profiles of well-known sporting men or prostitutes and commentary on the local social, theatrical, and sports scenes. They often devoted much space to reader communications, a feature not found in more traditional newspapers. A recurring “wants to know” column posted dozens of readers’ brief gossipy questions: Who was that climbing into Miss B’s bedroom window on State Street last Thursday? Who was doing what in a shed on Cooper’s alley at 10 p.m. last Saturday? Pickpockets and cheating clerks in stores received scathing treatment, as did unpleasant work supervisors and men who failed to pay their tavern debts. Letters from readers detailed the bawdy social action in their neighborhoods or in nearby towns, naming scoundrels by their initials. The more successful of these papers had wide regional distributions, as shown by their far-flung correspondents.

The editors of these publications piously asserted that they were shaming the licentious by exposing their transgressions. The Boston Blade’s masthead proclaimed, “We hold it evident, that truth should be published as villainy stalks abroad, so wide.” The New York Owl vowed that “the reformation of the rising generation has been our unceasing endeavor.” They and everyone else knew such declarations were a joke, especially when the papers detailed exact addresses of brothels and obscene book sellers. Even so, when editors were hauled into court on obscenity charges, they claimed to be high-minded critics of vice, no more guilty of obscenity than the good ladies agitating in print for moral reform. Skeptical judges sentenced them to jail.

Not all solo young men participated in this subculture, to be sure. Historians have mapped out competing subcultures, from the highly religious or economically ambitious youth cultivating personal restraint, to a “martial manhood” attracted to service as soldiers, firemen, or policemen, and a working-class “jolly fellow” tavern culture that made a high art of comical and practical jokes.

The raunchy weeklies amplified the presence of hidden enclaves of vice that had long existed in American cities. They provided a guide to the sexual underworld that made that realm visible and navigable to the new throngs of young men on the loose. Their unique interactive quality helped to create and define an oppositional youth culture that thumbed its nose at the moralists, who now grasped, better than ever, how difficult it would be to curb a decade of visible dissolution.

Questions for Analysis

Summarize the Argument: What evidence does the essay provide to explain why an urban sexual underworld came to light in the 1830s? Can you think of additional factors?

Analyze the Evidence: How might the unusual interactive character of the publications discussed in this essay enhance a sense of shared community among the consumers of the newspapers? Are there any parallels to social media of our time? Differences?

Consider the Context: What role did the market revolution and commercial expansion play in the development of this particular subculture of masculinity?