Charity And Sylvia A Same Sex Marriage In Early America

In her work, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, Rachel Hope Cleves addresses the possibility that, based on their letters, poetry, and diaries, Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant’s relationship went further than friendship and co-workers. Instead, she proposes that Charity and Sylvia might have engaged in a romantic same-sex relationship which equaled that of any other marriage in their community. Cleves argues that these women may have been in a romantic relationship by examining the language used in their letters, diaries and poems in comparison to popular poetry of the time and language used between heterosexual couples in romantic relationships. However, even Cleves admits that there are aspects to Drake and Bryant’s relationship which leave their relationship status permanently and purposely ambiguous. With some letters lost and others destroyed, there will always be questions about the exact

Cleves’s use of sources within the biography allows her to interpret Sylvia and Charity’s relationship from both sides, one as romantic and the other as very close friendship. In this biography, Cleve analyzes Charity and Sylvia’s language in their letters, diaries, and poems in order to understand their status in their community, families, and relationship with each other as two women in a same-sex marriage. Cleve’s biography Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America considers the lives of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake as both independent women and as a possible couple. As she examines their childhood, family life, and interpersonal relationships, Cleve examines the possibility that both women were attracted to women. Through working in schools with other women who also worked to avoid marriage, Charity