Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trial of Robert Newburgh

The 1774 trial of British army chaplain Robert Newburgh (1742–1825) for “vicious and immoral behavior” sheds valuable light on contemporaneous ideas about homosexuality, according to this revelatory study from historian McCurdy (Quarters). On the eve of the American Revolution, a British military tribunal in New York debated whether Newburgh was guilty of “buggery.” McCurdy demonstrates that rumors of same-sex relationships had dogged Newburgh for years (flamboyant dress was among the evidence cited in court), but that he also had a reputation for aiding enlisted men embroiled in disputes with superiors. Partly for the latter reason, his 1774 court-martial also accused him of disobeying command and “arousing mutiny.” Revealing the fascinating extent to which these accusations of sexual deviance and rebelliousness intermingled, McCurdy explains that on the prosecution’s side, “the same words that were used to prosecute Newburgh were used to discourage American independence.... Sodomy and rebellion [were denounced] in the same breath.” Meanwhile, Newburgh used “the rhetoric of the Revolution” to “[defend] himself by proclaiming his liberties.” One of Newburgh’s staunchest defenders, British lieutenant Alexander Fowler, would eventually defect to join the revolution. McCurdy’s accessible narrative is steeped in interpersonal strife and courtroom drama. The result is a spectacularly fine-grained look at the interplay between sexual and revolutionary politics. (June)