The Origins of the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice
This chapter first traces the gradual and growing challenges to late nineteenth-century Victorian standards in American public and private morality, specifically the increased printing and consumption of salacious literature. The chapter then examines the work of Anthony Comstock, the formation of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and the 1873 passage of the Comstock Act, which limited the availability of obscene literature. In response to Comstock, an articulate and militant opposition emerged. This opposition came not from obscenity dealers but from proponents of liberal radicalism, most notably the free love activist Ezra Heywood and his free speech allies. Their commitment to personal liberty in matters of religion, sexuality, and politics contrasted sharply with prevailing Protestant views. In response to the rising tide of obscene literature and the free love movement, elite Protestants organized the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice.