next target became D. M. Bennett-editor of the freethought periodical Truth Seeker- who flouted the Comstock laws by advertising Cupid's Yokes.
The Bennett case- U.S. versus Bennett (1879) [10]--rewrote American obscenity law, because it introduced the Hicklin standard to American jurisprudence. The Hicklin standard for obscenity derived from a decision in the British court case Regina versus Hicklin (1868). [11] Under this
standard, anything that tended to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences" was considered to be obscene. The Hicklin standard would remain the basis of American obscenity law for more than half a century.
Persecutions only made Ezra harden his stand. In 1882, he was again arrested for distributing Cupid's Yokes along with other "obscene" materials, including two of Walt Whitman's poems.
He was acquitted on April 12, 1883, then quickly arrested again for distributing an essay written by Angela, which argued for birth control.
This obscenity charge, along with one in 1887, was never prosecuted, largely due to public protest. Then, in 1890, The Word reprinted a letter from the free-love periodical Lucifer, the Light Bearer- a letter which had occasioned the trial of Lucifer's editor, Moses Harman, on charges of mailing obscenity.
43
Heywood was arrested and indicted on three counts of obscenity. He was sentenced to two years at hard labor, which he served in its entirety. Released in poor health, Ezra Heywood died a year later, on May 22, 1893 , after catching a cold.
The Word ceased publication. It had been killed by those who sought to control sexual expression.
It was left t6 Moses Harman, publisher of Lucifer, the Light Bearer, and the circle of courageous reformers who gathered about him, to continue the fight for women's sexual rights.
The Lucifer Circle
On a hot June Sunday in 1879 , the widower Moses Harman and his two children, George and Lillian, arrived in the sleepy Midwestern town of Valley Falls, Kansas. The small town would become a center of sexual reform in America. Although his neighbors must have initially approved of Harman's respectable appearance and well-mannered ways, they soon saw a more controversial side of the man. For Moses Harman was an uncompromising crusader for free love and against what he labeled the Twin Despots: the paternalistic state and the church.
In his private life, Harman was something of a prude, but he insisted that everyone be free to make decisions concerning sex without requiring permission from a church or the state. In particular, he demanded uncontrolled access to birth control, and marriage by contract.
In 1883 , Harman began publishing a periodical entitled Lucifer, the Light Bearer (1883-1907) .
The paper was so named because it was Lucifer, not God, who offered man the knowledge of good and evil. Like Prometheus, Lucifer brought light to man; like Prometheus; he became an outcast for doing so. Lucifer was the first political rebel; he questioned the status quo of authority called God.
Lucifer quickly became the outstanding journal of sexual liberty of its day. It almost defined the limits of sexual freedom in late nineteenth-century America.
Lucifer also became a prime target of Anthony Comstock, who bristled at the periodical's open discussion of birth control, and of forced marital sex as rape. Although Harman knew the risk involved in addressing such issues, he maintained: "Words are not deeds, and it is not the province of civil law to take preventative measures against remote or possible consequences of words, no matter how violent or incendiary." [12]
On February 23, 1887 , a federal marshal arrived in Valley Falls to arrest the staff of Lucifer on 270 counts of obscenity, which resulted from its publication of four letters to the editor. The number of counts was somewhat arbitrary, since Lucifer was considered too obscene to be read before a judge or jury. Harman responded by reprinting the
The Bennett case- U.S. versus Bennett (1879) [10]--rewrote American obscenity law, because it introduced the Hicklin standard to American jurisprudence. The Hicklin standard for obscenity derived from a decision in the British court case Regina versus Hicklin (1868). [11] Under this
standard, anything that tended to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences" was considered to be obscene. The Hicklin standard would remain the basis of American obscenity law for more than half a century.
Persecutions only made Ezra harden his stand. In 1882, he was again arrested for distributing Cupid's Yokes along with other "obscene" materials, including two of Walt Whitman's poems.
He was acquitted on April 12, 1883, then quickly arrested again for distributing an essay written by Angela, which argued for birth control.
This obscenity charge, along with one in 1887, was never prosecuted, largely due to public protest. Then, in 1890, The Word reprinted a letter from the free-love periodical Lucifer, the Light Bearer- a letter which had occasioned the trial of Lucifer's editor, Moses Harman, on charges of mailing obscenity.
43
Heywood was arrested and indicted on three counts of obscenity. He was sentenced to two years at hard labor, which he served in its entirety. Released in poor health, Ezra Heywood died a year later, on May 22, 1893 , after catching a cold.
The Word ceased publication. It had been killed by those who sought to control sexual expression.
It was left t6 Moses Harman, publisher of Lucifer, the Light Bearer, and the circle of courageous reformers who gathered about him, to continue the fight for women's sexual rights.
The Lucifer Circle
On a hot June Sunday in 1879 , the widower Moses Harman and his two children, George and Lillian, arrived in the sleepy Midwestern town of Valley Falls, Kansas. The small town would become a center of sexual reform in America. Although his neighbors must have initially approved of Harman's respectable appearance and well-mannered ways, they soon saw a more controversial side of the man. For Moses Harman was an uncompromising crusader for free love and against what he labeled the Twin Despots: the paternalistic state and the church.
In his private life, Harman was something of a prude, but he insisted that everyone be free to make decisions concerning sex without requiring permission from a church or the state. In particular, he demanded uncontrolled access to birth control, and marriage by contract.
In 1883 , Harman began publishing a periodical entitled Lucifer, the Light Bearer (1883-1907) .
The paper was so named because it was Lucifer, not God, who offered man the knowledge of good and evil. Like Prometheus, Lucifer brought light to man; like Prometheus; he became an outcast for doing so. Lucifer was the first political rebel; he questioned the status quo of authority called God.
Lucifer quickly became the outstanding journal of sexual liberty of its day. It almost defined the limits of sexual freedom in late nineteenth-century America.
Lucifer also became a prime target of Anthony Comstock, who bristled at the periodical's open discussion of birth control, and of forced marital sex as rape. Although Harman knew the risk involved in addressing such issues, he maintained: "Words are not deeds, and it is not the province of civil law to take preventative measures against remote or possible consequences of words, no matter how violent or incendiary." [12]
On February 23, 1887 , a federal marshal arrived in Valley Falls to arrest the staff of Lucifer on 270 counts of obscenity, which resulted from its publication of four letters to the editor. The number of counts was somewhat arbitrary, since Lucifer was considered too obscene to be read before a judge or jury. Harman responded by reprinting the
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