"Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands and the women who loved them. Female husbands--people assigned female who transed gender, lived as men, and married women--were true queer pioneers. Moving deftly from the colonial era to just before World War I, Jen Manion uncovers the riveting and very personal stories of ordinary people who lived as men despite tremendous risk, danger, and threat of violence. Female Husbands weaves the story of their lives in relation to broader social, economic, and political developments in the United States and the United Kingdom while also exploring how attitudes toward female husbands shifted in relation to transformations in gender politics and women's rights, ultimately leading to the demise of the category of 'female husband' in the early twentieth century. Female Husbands offers a dynamic, varied, and complex history of the LGBTQ past."--book jacket "In 1746, Charles Hamilton of Glastonbury, England found what they were looking for--Mary, a curious young woman who was taken by their charms. With the approval of the girl's aunt, the pair were joined in marriage and set off on a honeymoon. Hamilton had little money and no family. But they were resourceful, determined, and charismatic. They offered Mary companionship and adventure. As someone who was assigned female at birth, Hamilton became known as a female husband. Nearly one hundred years later and across the Atlantic, the Journal of Commerce ran a story called, 'Extraordinary Case of a Female Husband.' Scottish immigrant George Wilson was found passed out on the streets of New York's Lower East Side. A policeman took them into the station. Wilson was just another poor laborer who drank too much after a long day of work. But as someone who was raised as a girl and now lived as a man, they were incredibly vulnerable to harassment, violence, and punishment at the hands of the authorities"-- Provided by publisher.

Acknowledgments --Introduction: Extraordinary lives. -- Part one: UK husbands, 1740-1840: 1. The first female husband -- 2. The pillar of the community -- 3. The sailors and soldiers -- 4. The wives. -- Part two: US husbands, 1830-1910: 5. The workers -- 6. The activists -- 7. The criminalized poor -- 8. The end of a category. -- Conclusion: Sex trumps gender -- Epilogue: The first female-to-male transsexual. -- Notes -- Index.