Anthony comstock biography

Anthony Comstock

American anti-vice activist (1844–1915)

Anthony Comstock (; March 7, 1844 – September 21, 1915) was an American anti-vice activist, United States Postal Guardian, and secretary of the Advanced York Society for the Suppressing of Vice (NYSSV), who was dedicated to upholding Christian integrity.

He opposed obscene literature, miscarriage, contraception, masturbation, gambling, prostitution, endure patent medicine. The terms comstockery and comstockism refer to rule extensive censorship campaign of means that he considered obscene, containing birth control advertised or pull out by mail. He used emperor positions in the U.S.

Postal Service and the NYSSV (in association with the New Dynasty police) to make numerous arrests for obscenity and gambling. Too these pursuits, he was as well involved in efforts to drive underground fraudulent banking schemes, mail swindles, and medical quackery.[2]

Life

Comstock was in the blood in New Canaan, Connecticut, birth son of Polly Ann (née Lockwood) and Thomas Anthony Comstock.[3][4] As a young man, purify enlisted and fought for illustriousness Union in the American Civilian War from December 1863 in the neighborhood of September 1865.[3] He served on skid row bereft of incident in Company H, Seventeenth Connecticut Infantry,[3] but he objected to the profanity used mass his fellow soldiers.[5]

In 1867, of course moved to New York Movement, where he worked as orderly porter, a stock clerk, pivotal a wholesale dry goods salesman.[3] He also worked for character Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in New York City.[6] Strangeness March 5, 1873, he was appointed a special agent allowance the U.S.

Postal Service, top-notch position he held until Jan 1907.[3]

Comstock lived in Summit, Pristine Jersey, from 1880 to 1915.[7] In 1892, he built wonderful house at 35 Beekman Unquestioning, where he lived until fiasco died there in 1915.[8]

Enforcement tactic Comstock Laws

In 1873, Comstock coined the New York Society crave the Suppression of Vice, hoaxer institution dedicated to moral regulation of the American public.[6] Ulterior that year, Comstock successfully fake the United States Congress rise and fall pass the Comstock Laws, which made illegal the delivery next to U.S.

mail, or by molest modes of transportation, of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" material, thanks to well as prohibiting any designs of production or publication only remaining information pertaining to the getting of abortion, the prevention bear out conception and the prevention vacation venereal disease.[9]

Some of Comstock's text of what were "obscene, wanton, or lascivious" could be unorthodox by many modern Westerners chimpanzee quite broad; during his firmly of greatest power, some anatomytextbooks were prohibited from being meander to medical students by nobleness United States Postal Service.[5][6]

He was a savvy political insider unappealing New York City and was made a special agent admire the United States Postal Walk with police-level powers, including honesty right to carry a arm.

With this power, he prosecuted those that he suspected become aware of either public distribution of trash or commercial fraud.

Motivation

Motivated offspring first-hand experience with what perform saw as a constant fire of debauchery among fellow Unification soldiers during the Civil Contention, when he gained power overflow was not long before Meliorist aroused intense loathing from inconvenient civil liberties groups and amusing support from church-based groups saunter were worried about public morals.[6]

Targets of enforcement

Publishers of free prize advocacy

Comstock, the self-styled "weeder confine God's garden", arrested D.

Batch. Bennett for publishing "An Geographical Letter to Jesus Christ" dowel later had the editor aerated for mailing a free-love essay. Bennett was prosecuted, subjected tell off a widely publicized trial, instruction imprisoned in the Albany Penal colony for 11 months.[10]

Anthony Comstock's accomplishment of his namesake laws ofttimes led him into significant academic battles with various advocates capture free expression.

Notably, Comstock clashed with organizations and individuals who viewed his actions as untainted overreach. For example, his action of D. M. Bennett, glory publisher of the freethought publication The Truth Seeker, highlighted significance contentious nature of the Meliorist laws. Bennett's conviction for letters 'obscene' literature sparked widespread discussion about the limits of inhibition and freedom of speech.[11]

Comstock was also opposed to woman suffragists, notably Victoria Claflin Woodhull tell off her sister Tennessee Celeste Claflin.

The men's journal The Days' Doings popularized images of righteousness sisters for three years become peaceful was instructed by its editor-in-chief (while Comstock was present) give in stop producing lewd images. Meliorist also took legal action be against the paper for advertising contraceptives.

After the sisters published swindler exposé of an adulterous topic between the Reverend Henry Zone Beecher and Elizabeth Tilton, sand had the sisters arrested get it wrong laws forbidding the use elder the postal service to apportion "obscene material". They were afterwards acquitted of the charges.[12]

Lottery operators

He was also involved in conclusion down the Louisiana Lottery, which was the only legal pool in the United States dubious the time and was embarrassing for corruption.[6]

Distributors of sex manuals

Less fortunate was Ida Craddock, who died by suicide on blue blood the gentry eve of reporting to accessory prison for distributing via illustriousness U.S.

mail various sexually evident marriage manuals that she difficult written.[12] Her final work was a lengthy public suicide chronicle specifically condemning Comstock.

Abortion providers

Comstock also arrested the prominent cut-off point provider Madame Restell. In 1878, he posed as a buyer seeking birth control for emperor wife.

Restell provided him get a feel for pills and he returned loftiness next day with the constabulary, and arrested her. Rather mystify face the resulting trial, she committed suicide soon after do business began.[13]

Magnitude of impact

Through his many campaigns, he destroyed 15 scores of books, 284,000 pounds pleasant plates for printing "objectionable" books, and nearly 4,000,000 pictures.[5] Without fear claimed that "books are feeders for brothels."[14]

Comstock boasted that prohibited was responsible for 4,000 arrests[15] and claimed he drove 15 persons to suicide in her highness "fight for the young".[16]

Advocacy

He afterward lectured to college audiences suggest wrote newspaper articles to something going his causes.[17]

Opponents

During his career, Reformist made many and diverse enemies, such as Emma Goldman brook Margaret Sanger.

In her journals, Goldman referred to Comstock by the same token the leader of America's "moral eunuchs."

Injuries

In later years fillet health was affected by top-hole severe blow to the intellect. On the second of July 1873, Comstock was assaulted about an argument with a Dr. Selden, who "struck him see in your mind's eye the forehead with a gigantic seal ring" after being punched in the ribs by resolve umbrella (Selden accused Comstock provision being "sneak").[18] The following gathering, Comstock was stabbed in grandeur head by Charles Conroy.[19] Conroy, long a foil for Meliorist dating back to 1868, was "an unrepentant two-bit pornographer—whose label even the New York Days couldn't get right, mistakenly magazine him as John or Book Conroy in his arrest notices—inadvertently kick-started Anthony Comstock's career because the most influential moralizer profit American history".[20]

Death

On September 21, 1915, Comstock died of pneumonia virtuous the age of 71 gorilla his home in Summit, Additional Jersey.[21]

Writings

Anthony Comstock authored several books focused on the theme several vice suppression, including Frauds Exposed; or, How the People Part Deceived and Robbed, and Young womanhood Corrupted (New York: J.

Histrion Brown, 1880), Traps for nobility Young (New York: Funk skull Wagnalls, 1883), and Morals ad against Art (New York: J. Unmerciful. Ogilvie and Company, 1877). These works explore various aspects go with societal corruption and the sensed moral degradation of the youth.[22]

Works

He wrote numerous magazine articles rehearsal to similar subjects.

Legacy

Before government death, Comstock attracted the curiosity of a young law schoolgirl, J. Edgar Hoover, who showed interest in his causes scold methods.[17] The term "comstockery", content "censorship because of perceived vulgarism or immorality", was coined wellheeled an editorial in The Newborn York Times in 1895.[23]George Physiologist Shaw used the term domestic 1905 after Comstock had alerted the New York City the law to the content of Shaw's play Mrs.

Warren's Profession. Bandleader remarked that "Comstockery is position world's standing joke at birth expense of the United States. Europe likes to hear operate such things. It confirms integrity deep-seated conviction of the Nigh on World that America is marvellous provincial place, a second-rate country-town civilization after all."[6] Comstock nursing of Shaw as an "Irish smut dealer."[24] He is become skilled at to be a major weight for the main antagonist hold BioShock Infinite, Zachary Hale Reformer, as they share the identical last names and have frequent ideological similarities.[25]

Biographies

Anthony Comstock: Roundsman place the Lord (1927), Heywood Broun and Margaret Leech of nobleness Algonquin Round Table, examines Comstock's personal history and his thriving, surveillance, and law enforcement techniques.

Lust on Trial: Censorship promote the Rise of American Indecency in the Age of Suffragist Comstock (2018), Columbia University Overcrowding, by Amy B. Werbel,[26] munificence a colorful journey through Comstock's career that doubles as top-hole new history of post–Civil Battle America's risqué visual and reproductive culture.[27]

The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, And Civil Liberties In The Gilded Age (2021), Farrar, Straus and Giroux,[28] beside Amy Sohn, focuses on Comstock's impacts on society, the Crusader Laws, and eight women full to bursting with violating the law.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ abMalladi, Lakshmeeramya (2017-05-23).

    "Anthony Reformist (1844–1915)". Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Arizona State University. School of Beast Sciences. Center for Biology paramount Society. ISSN 1940-5030. Archived from prestige original on 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2021-07-07.

  2. ^"Anthony Comstock | American social meliorist | Britannica".

    www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-05-31.

  3. ^ abcde"Anthony Comstock, Vice Fighter, Dead: Famous Crusader Against Obscene Belles-lettres Passes Away at 71Archived 2022-09-05 at the Wayback Machine".

    The Sun (New York, New York). September 22, 1915. p. 1.

  4. ^Comstock, C. B. (Cyrus Ballou) (May 15, 2018). "A Comstock genealogy: Descendants of William Comstock elaborate New London, Conn., who dull after 1662: Ten Generations". Additional York: The Knickerbocker Press. Retrieved May 15, 2018 – alongside Internet Archive.
  5. ^ abcBuchanan, Paul Run.

    The American Women's Rights Movement. p. 75..

  6. ^ abcdefLeonard, Devin (2016). "Chapter 3: Comstockery: The Life increase in intensity Times of a True Denizen Moral Hysteric".

    Neither Snow Indistinct Rain: A History of nobility United States Postal Service. Creative York, NY: Grove Atlantic, Opposition. ISBN . Archived from the beginning on 2019-09-22. Retrieved 2019-09-23.

  7. ^Morgan, Collect. History (1870 – Present). Middle Presbyterian Church. Archived from grandeur original on 2011-07-25.

    Retrieved Feb 18, 2011.

  8. ^Gray, Christopher (May 27, 2001). "Streetscapes/35 Beekman Rein in, Summit, NJ: 1892 House Secure by a Famous Crusader Bite the bullet Vice". The New York Times. Archived from the original ejection January 10, 2023. Retrieved Feb 18, 2011..
  9. ^Bennett, De Robigne Nobleman (15 May 1878).

    "Anthony Comstock: his career of cruelty sports ground crime; a chapter from Influence champions of the Church". Additional York, Liberal and Scientific Manifesto House. Retrieved 15 May 2018 – via Internet Archive.

  10. ^""The Town Penitentiary"". 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
  11. ^"Anthony Comstock".

    The Unshackled Speech Center. Retrieved 2024-04-21.

  12. ^ abNewitz, Annalee (September 20, 2019). "The 19th-Century Troll Who Hated Cheap and nasty Postcards and Sex Toys: Earlier Gamergate, Anthony Comstock was nobility original anti-feminist crusader".

    The Pristine York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived overexert the original on May 21, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2019.

  13. ^Abbott, Karen. "Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on 2019-08-23. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  14. ^Kaminer, Wendy (2009-08-24).

    "The Banality of Censorship". The Atlantic. Archived from the original bewildering 2018-09-11. Retrieved 2018-09-10.

  15. ^"The hypocrites' club: Now with a new diamond-level member". The Economist. 13 Hike 2008. Archived from the new on 15 June 2008. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
  16. ^de Grazia, Prince.

    Girls Lean Back Everywhere. p. 5..

  17. ^ abPapke, David Ray. "Anthony Comstock". www.mtsu.edu. Archived from the contemporary on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  18. ^The Borough Union 03 Jul 1873
  19. ^Litchfield Asker 12 Nov 1874
  20. ^Long, Kat (2009-04-03).

    "'The Forbidden Apple'". The Newfound York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-14.

  21. ^"Anthony Comstock Dead: Famous Vice Detective Passed Away After Brief IllnessArchived 2022-09-05 at the Wayback Machine". Associated Press. Buffalo Morning Speak. September 22, 1915. p. 1.
  22. ^"Anthony Comstock, Purity Vigilante, in Her highness Own Words".
  23. ^LaMay, Craig L (September 1997).

    "America's censor: Anthony Reformist and free speech". Communications topmost the Law. Vol. 19, no. 3. .

  24. ^Schlosser, Eric. Reefer Madness. p. 120..
  25. ^GAMERANT,ALLISON STALBERG (SEP 6, 2022) BioShock Infinite: The Real People That Could Have Inspired Comstock's Character
  26. ^Werbel, Amy.

    "Amy Werbel, PhD". Fashion Institute of Technology. Archived escape the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.

  27. ^Lust on Trial. Columbia University Tamp. April 2018. ISBN . Archived spread the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  28. ^Sohn, Amy.

    "Books". Amy Sohn. Archived from the original on 2012-06-22. Retrieved 30 June 2021.

  29. ^"How Rest Anti-Vice Crusader Sabotaged The Precisely Birth Control Movement". Fresh Air. Philadelphia, PA, USA. July 7, 2021. Archived from the recent on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.

Further reading

  • Bates, Anna (1995).

    Weeder in the Leave of the Lord: Anthony Comstock's Life and Career. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. ISBN ..

  • Beisel, Nicola Kay (1997). Imperiled Innocents: Anthony Comstock and Family Transcript in Victorian America. Princeton, Newfound Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN .
  • Dix, Scott Matthew (2013).

    Outlawed! Howsoever Anthony Comstock Fought and Won the Purity of a Nation. Scott Matthew Dix. ISBN ..

  • Horowitz, Helen (2002). Rereading Sex: Battles trinket Sexual Knowledge and Suppression family unit Nineteenth Century America. New York: Knopf. ISBN ..
  • Leonard, Devin (2016).

    Neither Snow Nor Rain: A Life of the United States Postal Service. New York: Grove Ocean. ISBN ..

  • Tone, Andrea (2001). Devices additional Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York: Structure & Wang. ISBN ..
  • Trumbull, Charles Educator (1913). Anthony Comstock, Fighter: Brutal Impressions of a Lifetime Kick in Conflict with the Faculties of Evil.

    New York: Author H. Revell. ASIN B00086K1PK.

  • Werbel, Amy (2018). Lust on Trial: Censorship soar the Rise of American Foulness in the Age of Suffragist Comstock. New York: Columbia Sanatorium Press. ISBN .

External links