Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 94. William Dorsey Swann = Queen of Drag

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94. William Dorsey Swann = Queen of Drag · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an Airwave media podcast. Hello delicious friends,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to whoded What Now? The history podcast That's
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Speaker 1: Not Your History Class with mayor host Katie Charlewood, history
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Speaker 1: Harlot and reader of books. It has been an interesting week.
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Speaker 1: I had the live show in Dublin on Saturday, and
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Speaker 1: then I was just gallivant and for a couple of days.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, things got a bit wild during the week
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Speaker 1: there because about this. I talked about a few religious
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Speaker 1: things and some people were not happy with that and
0:58
Speaker 1: caused a bit of a commotion, especially this stuff about
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Speaker 1: Saint bridget. Now I'm probably gonna talk about that another
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Speaker 1: time and do like a full episode on bridget because
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Speaker 1: she deserves it, Like I might do a show next year.
1:13
Speaker 1: During it in bulk is about bridget One, I guess
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Speaker 1: bridget Ella and see how we go on. Now if
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Speaker 1: your new year, I warn you this is what happened
1:26
Speaker 1: at the beginning of every episode. Have we chat about
1:29
Speaker 1: my life and I share it because I like to
1:34
Speaker 1: share a little bit of me with you and not
1:36
Speaker 1: just like tell you a straight story, because I do
1:39
Speaker 1: tell you a straight story in the end, but I
1:42
Speaker 1: get people like dming me and messaging me and we
1:45
Speaker 1: chat back and forth on Patreon and on like Instagram
1:48
Speaker 1: and things like that as well, Like there's options for
1:54
Speaker 1: you know, having discussions, and I feel like we're having
2:01
Speaker 1: a chat, like you're my pal and I'm telling you
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Speaker 1: a story, you know, like I'm telling you gossip, you know,
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Speaker 1: or whatever. And I like that about this, that it's
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Speaker 1: not just me going. And then the Berlin Wallville because
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Speaker 1: I think it's important for us to have a connection
2:20
Speaker 1: in some way, if that makes sense. But I actually
2:24
Speaker 1: got a two star review. A two star, I mean,
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Speaker 1: I mean, I appreciate that it wasn't a one star.
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Speaker 1: But the complaint was I rambled for nine minutes before
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Speaker 1: the actual episode started. First of all, this is the
2:44
Speaker 1: episode just laying down some ground world rules. Once you
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Speaker 1: press play, that's the episode started. It's just nine minutes
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Speaker 1: until I started providing information regarding historical person or whatever.
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Speaker 1: And I had to think, like, what was I doing that.
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Speaker 1: I was talking for nine minutes and I was either
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Speaker 1: talking about the rights of women, which I don't know
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Speaker 1: feels fairly important, or I was discussing like a live
3:13
Speaker 1: show event or something coming up, and I was giving
3:18
Speaker 1: you information about it, and I just felt like such
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Speaker 1: a tigative. So if you haven't so petty of me,
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Speaker 1: if you haven't given me a five star review like
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Speaker 1: Spotify or you know, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen
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Speaker 1: to podcasts, you should do it because screw that person,
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Speaker 1: because we're awesome. Speaking of awesome, so this week's episode
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Speaker 1: is about William Dorsey Swan, and I am so excited
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Speaker 1: to tell you about this person because to our knowledge,
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Speaker 1: as far as we know, this is the first drag
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Speaker 1: queen LGBT activist, Like this is a major player, and
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Speaker 1: we know fucking nothing, like very few information exists about
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Speaker 1: William Dorsey Swan. And I want to be able to
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Speaker 1: celebrate amazing people in history, you know, not just talk
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Speaker 1: about all the bad stuff people did. I mean, we
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Speaker 1: have to because we can't hide from it, and we shouldn't.
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Speaker 1: But I want to celebrate people, especially because it is
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Speaker 1: currently Black History Month in the US and LGBTQ History
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Speaker 1: Month in sort of the UK and Ireland. And you know,
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Speaker 1: I hume in hall Over like what to do and
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Speaker 1: what to discuss and who I should be, you know,
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Speaker 1: telling you about and when I've got someone like this,
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Speaker 1: it overlaps and who we don't really know about and
4:54
Speaker 1: should be told. That makes it perfect. Now I could
4:58
Speaker 1: tell you about horrible things that happen to people of color.
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Speaker 1: I could do that, but I think, especially this month,
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Speaker 1: I don't have that fucking right. I am whiter than
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Speaker 1: a mayonnaise sandwich, like I am so pale and practically blue.
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Speaker 1: And I think that, especially during Black History Month, that
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Speaker 1: we should be celebrating the unknowns or you know, there
5:26
Speaker 1: should be knownes, because they deserve to have their story
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Speaker 1: told and we deserve to hear it. You deserve to
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Speaker 1: hear it. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking,
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Speaker 1: quite your jibbil jabber in fact me, in fact you,
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Speaker 1: I will. But first we've got to get our source on.
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Speaker 1: Our sources are House of Swan, where slaves became queens
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Speaker 1: by Channing Gerard Joseph William Dorsey Swan, The Queen of
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Speaker 1: Drag by Natitia Curry, the first self proclaimed Drag Queen,
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Speaker 1: was a formerly enslaved man by Carrie Shane. Records of
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Speaker 1: the Office of Pardon Attorney na I D one six
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Speaker 1: five one to eight four eight five. Yeah, but you
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Speaker 1: weren't expecting something proper on here. Yeah, I looked at records,
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Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite things to do. Listen,
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Speaker 1: we all have hobbies. Finally, we have our favorites, History
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Speaker 1: dot com, Biography dot com, and Smithsonian dot com. Iositing
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Speaker 1: comfortably good. Then let's begin. William Dorsey Swan was born
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Speaker 1: William Henry Yunker in Washington County, Maryland, USA, eighteen fifty eight.
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Speaker 1: He was born to Mary Jane Yunker and Andrew Jackson Swan.
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Speaker 1: Mary Jane she was I don't want to say a
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Speaker 1: housekeeper because she was enslaved. So she was an enslaved housekeeper.
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Speaker 1: And Andrew Jackson Swan he was a wheat farmer, an
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Speaker 1: enslaved wheat farmer. I mean, I suppose an enslaved laborer
7:20
Speaker 1: is probably the better term. And he's also a musician,
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Speaker 1: So they are slaves. They have twelve thirteen children who
7:31
Speaker 1: are slaves, because that's how chattel slavery works. You are
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Speaker 1: a slave, your ancestors are slaves, and your children are slaves.
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Speaker 1: Now you may notice one that we actually have a
7:45
Speaker 1: birthday first one, which is shocking because it's, you know,
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Speaker 1: an enslaved person from the past, and all I can
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Speaker 1: think of is the pessimistic side of me is like,
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Speaker 1: maybe people were just say people, white people were just
8:03
Speaker 1: really good at keeping receipts, you know, which really just
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Speaker 1: sucks because people are not property, basic basic human rights.
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Speaker 1: So Swan and his twelve siblings, and his mom and
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Speaker 1: his dad, they are all the legal property of Anne Murray,
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Speaker 1: a white woman who owned a plantation. So yeah, he's
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Speaker 1: born on a plantation as a slave, and he grows
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Speaker 1: up working for this woman. I say working, but you know,
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Speaker 1: doing stuff without pay or compensation for labor for the
8:47
Speaker 1: next four years until Union soldiers arrive in the winter
8:53
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty two and they're like yeah, and he
9:00
Speaker 1: any no day that though, you know, you can't own people.
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Speaker 1: It's kind of wrong. So basically, after the end of
9:11
Speaker 1: the American Civil War, you know, they're freed. So the
9:15
Speaker 1: family is freed, and his parents managed to purchase a
9:22
Speaker 1: land with a plot of land in order to you know,
9:25
Speaker 1: set up their own farm. Now you may have also
9:29
Speaker 1: noticed that he started life with a different name, and
9:34
Speaker 1: the reason his surname is Yungker not Swan is because
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Speaker 1: enslaved people could not legally marry technically because they weren't
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Speaker 1: seen as humans. And this resulted in William legally taking
9:50
Speaker 1: the surname of his mother and not his dad. But
9:55
Speaker 1: once you know, freedom came about, he was able to
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Speaker 1: actually have his father's surname, which, of course, back in
10:03
Speaker 1: the day, big deal. I mean, it's bad enough. Wait
10:09
Speaker 1: a minute, wait a minute, sorry, my brain just had
10:13
Speaker 1: a little sparky explosion in it. Now. You know, this
10:18
Speaker 1: a very racist concept of black men not supporting their
10:23
Speaker 1: families in abandoning they could. This like initial stereotype sort
10:31
Speaker 1: of spring from this era where children would not necessarily take,
10:38
Speaker 1: you know that the name of their parents in an
10:43
Speaker 1: era where lineage is very important, but they wouldn't necessarily
10:46
Speaker 1: take the name of their dad because they couldn't legally
10:52
Speaker 1: because of you know, the not being able to marry it.
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Speaker 1: Maybe that's a that's a part of it, perchance. Anyway,
11:01
Speaker 1: point being gets his dad's name and he ends up
11:04
Speaker 1: living with his family and so he's on the farm.
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Speaker 1: And then as he gets older, he gets a job
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Speaker 1: as a waiter because you know, he needs money to survive,
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Speaker 1: which is just a general, a general way of life.
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Speaker 1: So he ends up moving away from his family and
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Speaker 1: going to Washington, d C. To the Capital because that's
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Speaker 1: where the jobs are, and so he goes there in
11:30
Speaker 1: order to make more money and support his family. And
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Speaker 1: so he goes there and he starts working as a
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Speaker 1: janitor at the Spencerian Business College, owned by Henry and
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Speaker 1: Sarah Spencer. Now it has been suggested that it's during
11:46
Speaker 1: this time where he's working at the business college that
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Speaker 1: William learns to read and write. See, this is a
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Speaker 1: period of time where literacy levels are not high at
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Speaker 1: the best of times, Like if you are from a
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Speaker 1: lower class or working class, like chances that you're litterate,
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Speaker 1: not great, to be honest. So the fact that William
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Speaker 1: can read and write as a former slave is a
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Speaker 1: huge fucking deal. Like it either means that his parents
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Speaker 1: went to a massive effort to ensure that he had
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Speaker 1: an opportunity to actually move forward in life, or that
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Speaker 1: William had the fucking tenacity and the absolute balls, sorry
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Speaker 1: to chucking money from last week, had the absolute balls
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Speaker 1: to come forward and put the effort in and the
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Speaker 1: drive to learn to read and write. Like it's not
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Speaker 1: an easy task if you haven't done it, like as
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Speaker 1: a young child likes it's tough, and he's doing this,
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Speaker 1: so like the assumption is that he learned to do
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Speaker 1: it while he was at the college, although we don't
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Speaker 1: have any evidence to suggest that he could have very
13:01
Speaker 1: well been taught by someone like back in his hometown.
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Speaker 1: He could have done that. But he can read him right.
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Speaker 1: And things are going okay for William, and it's relatively
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Speaker 1: uneventful until eighteen eighty two, where he is arrested because
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Speaker 1: he stole a bunch of shit. He is taken to
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Speaker 1: court and he pleads guilty for stealing books and party
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Speaker 1: supplies from the Washington Library Company and from stealing a
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Speaker 1: bunch of stuff that we don't actually know what he took,
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Speaker 1: but he took things. Stuff. Gizmo's and gadgets are plenty.
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Speaker 1: Who's it some? What's it's galore? You want to think
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Speaker 1: of my Bob's. Oh, he's got twenty, which he pilfered
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Speaker 1: from the home of his bosses, Henry and Sarah Spencer.
14:00
Speaker 1: So he is sentenced to seven months in jail for
14:03
Speaker 1: like collectively, for these crimes. So William Darcy Swan. So
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Speaker 1: he's in jail for petty larceny, and something weird happens,
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Speaker 1: so his sentence and judge, the judge who like sentenced
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Speaker 1: him to the jail time, the assistant district attorney, employees
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Speaker 1: of the Washington Library Company, and his employers, the Spencers,
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Speaker 1: they apply for a petition of pardon, so effectively, President
14:45
Speaker 1: Gover Cleveland he had these like an option of a
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Speaker 1: like a presidential pardon, you know, for people who don't
14:53
Speaker 1: deserve to be in jail, who deserve a pardon. So
14:57
Speaker 1: this petition is signed and they basically stay that he
15:00
Speaker 1: was just trying to get an education and help his family.
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Speaker 1: And the judge is like other people who were involved
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Speaker 1: in this crime were already let go, so like this
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Speaker 1: seems a bit harsh, slash unfair, slashed away, bit racist,
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Speaker 1: you know. And his employers are talking about how great
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Speaker 1: a character he is and how they're just going to
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Speaker 1: give him his job back once he gets out of jail,
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Speaker 1: and it's, you know, a lifetime job. Doesn't have to worry.
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Speaker 1: And this is like my favorite thing is they're talking
15:32
Speaker 1: about his character and I'm going to do my fulgorn
15:35
Speaker 1: like grown voice, so just appreciate it. He was free
15:38
Speaker 1: from vast, industrious or a fan in his habits and associations,
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Speaker 1: gentle in his disposition, courtious and who's burn That is
15:47
Speaker 1: my full grown, like grown voice, and it needs some work,
15:50
Speaker 1: but you know it's getting there. So basically they're saying
15:54
Speaker 1: that he is just a good, kind, wonderful dude. He's
15:57
Speaker 1: just trying to better himself and do right by his family,
16:02
Speaker 1: and that he deserves to, you know, get out. So like, yeah,
16:08
Speaker 1: you've got all of these people approving it, you know,
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Speaker 1: the assistant US disc attorney, the judge, all of these
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Speaker 1: employees and his employers, like everybody's all like, let this
16:17
Speaker 1: man out of jail, you pricks. Now we don't actually
16:22
Speaker 1: know if the party went through, we don't have that documentation,
16:26
Speaker 1: but we know it was like applied for. So eventually
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Speaker 1: William gets out of jail, he goes back to work,
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Speaker 1: and he starts hosting these parties for his community. And
16:39
Speaker 1: so they happen in different places. So sometimes they would
16:45
Speaker 1: be in somebody's house. Sometimes it would be the YMCA.
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Speaker 1: They were secret affairs, invitation only, well I see invitation only,
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Speaker 1: Like people would just show up. Sometimes for some it
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Speaker 1: was like a known secret, an open secret, and for
17:01
Speaker 1: others it was not that. And so these drag parties
17:09
Speaker 1: would happen. Now and now we're getting nerdy about words.
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Speaker 1: So these parties are happening and they're basically like balls.
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Speaker 1: So they're dressing up in fabulous outfits and it's sort
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Speaker 1: of what would become like the ballroom scene, you know,
17:29
Speaker 1: the ball I should say, and if you've seen Pose,
17:33
Speaker 1: go watch Pose and you'll get an idea. And so
17:36
Speaker 1: it was like these drag shows and they would have
17:40
Speaker 1: these groups and they would just sort of show off
17:44
Speaker 1: their fabulous like skills and moves and attire and the
17:51
Speaker 1: whole thing about drag, like the name the word is
17:56
Speaker 1: that it could come from two separate sort of sets.
18:01
Speaker 1: One is your glad rags. Now, glad rags are sort
18:06
Speaker 1: of your fancy clothes, you're going out clothes. You're going
18:09
Speaker 1: out out clothes because you're going out out your fancy
18:13
Speaker 1: you know, you are the bes knees, you are fab
18:17
Speaker 1: you LUs darling. And so it could come from that,
18:23
Speaker 1: or it could come from grand rag, which is a
18:31
Speaker 1: term for a masquerade ball. So we've got these two
18:36
Speaker 1: very sort of viable options, and I'd be happy if
18:39
Speaker 1: it comes from either way. But that's basically where the
18:42
Speaker 1: word drag comes from. Or we think we don't have
18:48
Speaker 1: like a proper thing. We don't have a proper etymological
18:53
Speaker 1: sort of tree for it, but there, it is. There.
18:57
Speaker 1: It is. So William Dorsey swall And is hosting these parties,
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Speaker 1: and he is known as Queeny Swan or mother Swan
19:07
Speaker 1: sort of at these events. And there are butlers and
19:13
Speaker 1: coachmen and many many former enslaved people, including one mister Lafayette.
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Speaker 1: Lafayette I can't hit myself. Pierce Lafayette was once a slave.
19:34
Speaker 1: He was the property of the vice President of the
19:38
Speaker 1: Confederate States of America, Alexander H. Stevens. Yeah, yeah, and
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Speaker 1: he's like, oh no. So these parties were absolutely amazing.
19:55
Speaker 1: They would do sort of singing and dancing. They would
20:00
Speaker 1: do talent competitions. They would have galas where they would
20:05
Speaker 1: parade in their outfits and they would do this cakewalk now,
20:11
Speaker 1: or their version of a cakewalk now. The cakewalk was
20:15
Speaker 1: a sort of act a dancer performance which mocked slave owners.
20:22
Speaker 1: And I think that's this is just something fucking beautiful
20:25
Speaker 1: about that. And that was one of the things that
20:29
Speaker 1: people would do. So there was the people who would
20:35
Speaker 1: go there, like it wasn't just you know, the gay community.
20:40
Speaker 1: There were straight men there. They were white men, black men.
20:45
Speaker 1: There was just like a huge crowd. I remember how
20:50
Speaker 1: I said these parties were like an open secret. So
20:53
Speaker 1: it gets to the point where the police are getting tips.
20:57
Speaker 1: They are being tipped off on this right, and they
21:01
Speaker 1: are informed of this scandalous escapade where there are black
21:08
Speaker 1: men in full female costumes. They are cross dressing. Now
21:16
Speaker 1: during this time, like these laws are coming in about
21:20
Speaker 1: cross dressing, and across the US it is becoming illegal
21:24
Speaker 1: to wear clothes of the opposite gender. So whatever you
21:31
Speaker 1: are presenting, whether it's male or female, you have to
21:35
Speaker 1: like wear the clothes of you know, your assigned gender
21:39
Speaker 1: at birth, effectively. So this is going around and they
21:44
Speaker 1: get this tip off about this party and there's like
21:47
Speaker 1: men in costumes, but only men black men, which is
21:51
Speaker 1: somehow worse, okay, you know, because racism, And they break
21:58
Speaker 1: in to a party. So they break and they raid
22:01
Speaker 1: the party and l Street northwest right and Swan's beautiful
22:10
Speaker 1: home which apparently was decorated very tastefully, which I'm not surprised.
22:16
Speaker 1: Clearly the man had taste. So there are men in gowns,
22:24
Speaker 1: and there are drums and fiddles and banjos and they're
22:28
Speaker 1: just having a swell time. But they get arrested and
22:32
Speaker 1: shit goes down yadiyardiaa. And the next year it happens again,
22:39
Speaker 1: but it's on his thirtieth birthday party. So it's William
22:44
Speaker 1: Dorsey Swan's party, and the police fucking show up and
22:48
Speaker 1: there's Pierce Lafayette and a bunch of other dudes and
22:52
Speaker 1: they are all in like makeup and powdered wigs in
22:57
Speaker 1: these big fancy costumes, and you know, they're dancing, they're
23:01
Speaker 1: having a good time. They're just living their best lives
23:04
Speaker 1: as they can, you know, relatively, you know, lower wrongs
23:08
Speaker 1: of society and you know, the nineteenth century, not sipper,
23:15
Speaker 1: but you know, doing the best with the hand they
23:17
Speaker 1: have been dealt. And again the police have to crash
23:21
Speaker 1: the fucking party like Buzz Kellington, and they decide that
23:28
Speaker 1: Swan soirees don't deserve, you know, to happen, because what else,
23:35
Speaker 1: So they raid the party. And I'm not going to
23:39
Speaker 1: say the word, but there's an article headline which basically
23:45
Speaker 1: says n word dive rated and word dove rated. Thirteen
23:52
Speaker 1: black men dressed as women surprised at supper and arrested. Listen,
23:56
Speaker 1: if they're gonna be racist, I'm gonna do a folk
23:58
Speaker 1: on leg convoice. Okay, that is how it works. So basically,
24:04
Speaker 1: the police just being absolute bob bags, by the way,
24:09
Speaker 1: but they are hindled by Swan himself because he has
24:16
Speaker 1: been dealing with this a long bloody time, Like he's
24:21
Speaker 1: used to being raided. He's used to like having to
24:23
Speaker 1: deal with this shit from the cops, right, and so
24:27
Speaker 1: instead of you know, letting them just burst through and
24:31
Speaker 1: do their thing, William says fuck this for a game
24:35
Speaker 1: of soldiers and physically blocks the door, and he physically
24:41
Speaker 1: holds the cops back just by blocking the space that
24:47
Speaker 1: a bunch of people manage to escape, Like people are
24:50
Speaker 1: jumping out of windows. You know, they're hiding in cupboards,
24:53
Speaker 1: which is you know, literally heading in closets. Not the
24:57
Speaker 1: best move, lads, but do what you need to do.
25:00
Speaker 1: But I think like nearly twenty people managed to escape
25:03
Speaker 1: because of this, and all in all, twelve men end
25:06
Speaker 1: up being arrested. The Swan is just there standing up
25:10
Speaker 1: to them, and he does so in a cream satin dress. Okay,
25:17
Speaker 1: first of all, this dress is dry clean only melanie
25:22
Speaker 1: and Secondly, if William is going to do something, he
25:25
Speaker 1: is going to do it in style. So the police
25:29
Speaker 1: managed to get in and they fucking tear the dress
25:32
Speaker 1: to shreds. They're probably just so incensed that he has
25:35
Speaker 1: the goal to stand up to them and also do
25:39
Speaker 1: it so well well in a gown like probably looking
25:44
Speaker 1: like a beautiful debutante, like gorgeous. I Bury was gorgeous,
25:49
Speaker 1: you know, m But like my favorite part is like
25:53
Speaker 1: he's standing there blocking the door and you know this
25:57
Speaker 1: long cream, satiny silk gown and straight up says to
26:03
Speaker 1: the officers, you is no gentleman. Like I love the
26:10
Speaker 1: fact that then a fight ensues and like he's just
26:14
Speaker 1: physically fighting the police and a gown which again does
26:18
Speaker 1: get torn to shreds because of course they do, but
26:22
Speaker 1: still fucking yours William. So by doing this, by performing
26:31
Speaker 1: this action, by standing up to the place and physically
26:34
Speaker 1: stopping them like this is probably one of the first,
26:39
Speaker 1: I think one of the first cases of like resistance
26:44
Speaker 1: and violent activism in sort of the name of LGBTQ, right,
26:52
Speaker 1: you know, this is this is why William Dortey Swann
26:58
Speaker 1: is an activist because he did so much to protect
27:01
Speaker 1: members of his community, He protected his friends. You know,
27:07
Speaker 1: he's just fucking amazing. Now, over the next few years,
27:10
Speaker 1: the parties just kind of move around, right because they
27:13
Speaker 1: have to hold them secretly because the police are fucking
27:16
Speaker 1: raiding everything. Right, And for the next like eight years,
27:20
Speaker 1: we don't really hear or see much of like Swan's activities, Like,
27:25
Speaker 1: we don't know what's kind of going on until eighteen
27:30
Speaker 1: ninety six, when the shit hits the fan and William
27:35
Speaker 1: Dorsey Swan gets arrested for holding a gala for the
27:40
Speaker 1: second time on the first of January. He is charged
27:44
Speaker 1: with keeping a disorderly house, which is basically a youth
27:49
Speaker 1: miss him for running a brothel because you know, gay
27:53
Speaker 1: people can't exist in places unless they're shagging, which is
27:58
Speaker 1: the rule of it. He's holding a drag ball, but
28:02
Speaker 1: he's accused of basically holding an orgy because those are
28:07
Speaker 1: the same thing according to these weird puritans. It's fucking ridiculous. Now,
28:14
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try and read this article from the eighteen
28:17
Speaker 1: ninety six Evening Star. I'm gonna try and do that
28:24
Speaker 1: without reading the racist bets. So I'm gonna try because
28:28
Speaker 1: paraphrasing it's fine, okay, I am going to do the
28:31
Speaker 1: four corn micron voice, So prepare to suffer. William Dorsy, Swan,
28:36
Speaker 1: at whose house number one five oh four els read
28:39
Speaker 1: northwest a drag was rated about two weeks ago, and
28:44
Speaker 1: who was convicted in the police court last week of
28:47
Speaker 1: a charge of keeping a disorderly house, was sentenced to
28:50
Speaker 1: turn months in jail by George Miller. Today, I said,
28:53
Speaker 1: I said, this was the case from which a number
28:56
Speaker 1: of men were found in this place, which Judge Miller
29:01
Speaker 1: characterized as a hell of iniquity. There were several men
29:06
Speaker 1: reported to be of character of Swan, of the character
29:10
Speaker 1: of Swan, and during the trial of the case in
29:14
Speaker 1: court there appeared young men of respectable parentage who thought
29:18
Speaker 1: of how they had visited this place, danced and indulged
29:21
Speaker 1: in strong drink of all kinds, from beer to champagne.
29:27
Speaker 1: A large stock of liquors found on the premises was
29:29
Speaker 1: in court as evidence, but d'rosay said he didn't have
29:33
Speaker 1: to buy the liquor. Indisposing of the case, Judge Miller
29:38
Speaker 1: told the fearful revelations made the trial the downfall and
29:42
Speaker 1: ruin of young men, and said he only wished you
29:44
Speaker 1: had the power to impose a ten year sentence. Besh
29:49
Speaker 1: Ma besh I would like to send you where you
29:52
Speaker 1: would never see a man's face, said the judge, and
29:56
Speaker 1: would like them to rid the city of all other
29:58
Speaker 1: disreputable persons of this same can'd thieving and pity assaults
30:03
Speaker 1: amount to nothing as compared with the conduct of these people. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
30:15
Speaker 1: so assault assault, this judge, This judge is saying assault
30:23
Speaker 1: as a lesser crime than being almost sexual. Let's consider
30:31
Speaker 1: that for a moment, shall we. You know, it's okay
30:36
Speaker 1: to you know, assault a person, to punch a child
30:41
Speaker 1: in the face, to stab the elderly person in the eye.
30:45
Speaker 1: That is not even remotely as bad as being gay.
30:50
Speaker 1: Like what in the name of the Lord Savanathi? Is
30:54
Speaker 1: this what absolute fucking bullshit? Is this nonsense? But anyway,
31:01
Speaker 1: William Dorsey Swon on the third of January eighteen ninety six,
31:05
Speaker 1: pleads not guilty after this weirdly quick see racist trial.
31:14
Speaker 1: And I say racist, it's also homophobic because it's the
31:18
Speaker 1: nineteenth century. And he is sentenced to ten months in jail,
31:23
Speaker 1: maybe less with good behavior, but effectively for the crime
31:28
Speaker 1: of being homosexual. And having a party, just so we're
31:32
Speaker 1: clear on what's happening. So three months into his sentence,
31:38
Speaker 1: Swan files a petition of pardon, basically saying that you know,
31:43
Speaker 1: he's a respectable, hard worker, he's had continuous employment, and
31:47
Speaker 1: that the sentence was severe in comparison to the crime,
31:54
Speaker 1: and that if he was released he would live a
31:56
Speaker 1: proper and law abiding life. So he gets his petition
32:03
Speaker 1: and then his friends, thirty of them are signatories on it.
32:08
Speaker 1: So thirty other people, whether they're from the drag community
32:12
Speaker 1: or other elsewise, they sign this petition because they're like,
32:15
Speaker 1: he deserves to be out. They sign it in a
32:18
Speaker 1: show of support. Right now, when this gets to the
32:24
Speaker 1: US Attorney AA Berney, this hasn't met with the same
32:30
Speaker 1: sort of fervor and appreciation that he's like eighteen eighty
32:34
Speaker 1: two petition was. You know, he wasn't happy with William
32:40
Speaker 1: Dorsey Swan's life. He basically says that the petition is
32:45
Speaker 1: without merit because he's charged with having a disorderly house,
32:53
Speaker 1: because running a brothel, which he's accused of effectively, and
32:57
Speaker 1: because running a brothel is like so much worse than
33:01
Speaker 1: lesser crimes, and that he was corrupting other people, so
33:07
Speaker 1: like corrupting you know, decent you know, young men, see
33:12
Speaker 1: rich and white, as if it's his fault. His parties
33:15
Speaker 1: are so awesome that everybody wants to go to them,
33:18
Speaker 1: like come on. So, while the pardon is still under review,
33:22
Speaker 1: so like before it even gets to the president right
33:25
Speaker 1: for an official pardon, William Dorsey Swan's friends start calling
33:30
Speaker 1: the US Attorney's office because they're worried about William's health.
33:35
Speaker 1: So William has a heart issue and they're like, he's
33:38
Speaker 1: not well enough to be in prison. And the doctor
33:44
Speaker 1: who had said he had like a clean bill of
33:46
Speaker 1: health conveniently beforehand in March of that year, like, he
33:52
Speaker 1: comes back in July and he's like, yeah, his ticker
33:56
Speaker 1: is not super saying he's got like a disease of
33:59
Speaker 1: the heart and you know, not exactly tip top health wise.
34:04
Speaker 1: And so they're trying to get the pardon to go
34:06
Speaker 1: through on the basis of his health. But President Grover
34:11
Speaker 1: Cleveland denies to issue a pardon on the twenty ninth
34:17
Speaker 1: of July in eighteen ninety six, because again the whole
34:20
Speaker 1: concept is that the conditions of jail are not conducive
34:24
Speaker 1: to you know, living a healthy life with a you know,
34:27
Speaker 1: a dodgy ticker, a dodgy heart. So Grover Cleveland, President
34:32
Speaker 1: Grover Cleveland. He says that the implications of Dorsy Swan's
34:38
Speaker 1: health were not sufficient to counter the character of his offense.
34:47
Speaker 1: So basically, if he has a heart attack and dies, like,
34:55
Speaker 1: that's fine because he's gay, Like, because the severity of
35:05
Speaker 1: the crime of being a gay man hosting a party
35:10
Speaker 1: means that you deserve to suffer ill health and jail. Like,
35:16
Speaker 1: what what sane person? I mean, I understand this is
35:22
Speaker 1: the past, but that's a fucking extreme view, man. Now
35:26
Speaker 1: you can be like, why it was a different time.
35:28
Speaker 1: Yet that only works if there aren't people, you know,
35:33
Speaker 1: batting for the underdogs, if there aren't people standing up
35:36
Speaker 1: to this, and clearly there are Otherwise we would not
35:41
Speaker 1: be in this fucking situation. Would wait. So he serves
35:44
Speaker 1: his sentence, he does his time, right, does it comes
35:49
Speaker 1: back out? And what does he do? He still hosts
35:53
Speaker 1: his parties. The drag happens so like throughout this time
35:59
Speaker 1: over his lifetime sort of, William Dorsey Swan gets known
36:04
Speaker 1: as like Queeny Swan to his friends. Mother Swan even
36:08
Speaker 1: and refers to himself specifically as the Queen of Drag,
36:14
Speaker 1: like the first drag queen, right, and this is him. Now.
36:20
Speaker 1: We don't know if Dorsy Swan would be what we
36:24
Speaker 1: would call transgender nowadays. We don't have that information and
36:29
Speaker 1: we don't have the ability to ask that, and even
36:35
Speaker 1: sort of the concept of gender during this time period
36:37
Speaker 1: is very is very specific, and so we wouldn't know
36:41
Speaker 1: how that would relate in modern terms. But anyway, William
36:46
Speaker 1: Dorsey Swan Queen of Drag and then keeps hosting balls
36:53
Speaker 1: until the twentieth century, Like he makes it all the
36:58
Speaker 1: way to like nineteen oh one, I think before he
37:00
Speaker 1: starts sort of bowing out. Oh my goodness, I actually
37:05
Speaker 1: forgot so like the cake walk earlier that I was describing,
37:08
Speaker 1: it has sort of these janky movements, these sharp movements,
37:13
Speaker 1: and it's not dissimilar to voguing nowadays. So I thought
37:19
Speaker 1: that was like an interesting little tippit for you, and
37:23
Speaker 1: so yeah, but back to this, So he's doing this
37:25
Speaker 1: up until like nineteen oh one, where he has to
37:28
Speaker 1: just kind of bub out. Whether it was for health
37:30
Speaker 1: reasons or whatnot, we're not sure. Now two of his
37:34
Speaker 1: brothers had actually performed like in the balls doing drag, right,
37:39
Speaker 1: and one of them, Daniel, he continues to make like
37:42
Speaker 1: drag costumes, like for about fifty years in total, I think, oh,
37:47
Speaker 1: in all, but yeah, up until he's like not really
37:52
Speaker 1: an active participant. William Dorsey Swan is still in the
37:58
Speaker 1: ball scene. He was hosting events and gatherings for the
38:05
Speaker 1: queer community in Washington, DC. Like, he wasn't stopping even
38:10
Speaker 1: though he knew the risks to him, because this was
38:15
Speaker 1: his life, this was his people, and he wasn't going
38:18
Speaker 1: to stop for them. Now, eventually Swan does move back
38:23
Speaker 1: to Hancock in Maryland, right, he goes back, and that's
38:28
Speaker 1: him effectively retiring from the very drag scene that he created.
38:34
Speaker 1: You know that he was either the founding or at least,
38:38
Speaker 1: you know, one of the pinnacle parts of And we
38:42
Speaker 1: don't really know much about the last twenty or so
38:45
Speaker 1: years of William's life, and even the circumstances surrounding his
38:52
Speaker 1: death we're not clear on now. It could have been
38:57
Speaker 1: old age, it could have been his heart. We just
39:01
Speaker 1: don't have the information, Like we don't even have an
39:05
Speaker 1: exact date of death either. We know it was round
39:09
Speaker 1: about approximately nearby the twenty third of December nineteen twenty five.
39:17
Speaker 1: My part of me is like, it's good that we
39:19
Speaker 1: have some kind of idea, but I just wish we
39:22
Speaker 1: could give him the right day. I mean, I guess
39:25
Speaker 1: it's funny because we don't know his exact date of
39:28
Speaker 1: birth and we don't know his exact date of death,
39:30
Speaker 1: so it's they go weird horrible poetry to it. I
39:36
Speaker 1: suppose people always say that when something is similar one
39:41
Speaker 1: end to the other, it's like there's like a poetry
39:43
Speaker 1: to it, or hear me out, it's just you know, homophobes, racists, bigots,
39:51
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, not wanting to let the
39:54
Speaker 1: information out, to try and bury his memory, which is
39:57
Speaker 1: what they try and do. Because he passes away at
40:01
Speaker 1: the age of sixty five in Hancock, Maryland, right and
40:05
Speaker 1: his body is cremated. Whether that was his choice or
40:08
Speaker 1: the choice of officials or family members again not not
40:13
Speaker 1: sure on that. But after he passes away, his house
40:20
Speaker 1: is leveled, and when I'm seeing leveled, it is burnt
40:25
Speaker 1: to the ground. Apparently the destruction of property by way
40:30
Speaker 1: of fire is no longer arson if city officials are involved.
40:36
Speaker 1: Like they are making sure to remove his home, to
40:39
Speaker 1: remove everything in it, artifacts, documentation, everything between, you know,
40:44
Speaker 1: and they are just shutting it down, hiding it. You know,
40:48
Speaker 1: they're trying to remove his memory, sort of information about him,
40:52
Speaker 1: his parties, his balls, his activism. But you cannot hide
40:59
Speaker 1: history forever, and it is coming back for you. I
41:03
Speaker 1: told you we are out with the era of the
41:05
Speaker 1: pale and stale males controlling the narrative, and we are
41:10
Speaker 1: going to share stories, and we're going to tell the
41:14
Speaker 1: wonderful and awful and everything in between, the actual history
41:22
Speaker 1: that we deserve to know, especially by a pioneer and
41:29
Speaker 1: activist and fucking clearly amazing, wonderful human like William Dorsey Swan,
41:38
Speaker 1: the Queen of Drag Now again, if you liked my
41:44
Speaker 1: telling of this story, feel free to about in review
41:48
Speaker 1: five stars wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm so happy
41:52
Speaker 1: to be able to share this story this month. You
41:54
Speaker 1: have no idea. I'm so I'm so happy I got
41:56
Speaker 1: to do it and I got to share this with you.
41:58
Speaker 1: I'm so oh, I'm so happy. You can follow me
42:02
Speaker 1: in the socials message connect DM, comment on stuff, share stuff,
42:09
Speaker 1: share this episode. Actually, please because I would appreciate it.
42:12
Speaker 1: It would very help, would it? It would very much help.
42:16
Speaker 1: This is why we don't record things in the middle
42:19
Speaker 1: of the night in a hotel room after traveling for
42:23
Speaker 1: basically three days. But we're getting through it. Okay, I'm
42:28
Speaker 1: going to do recommendation time now. So for watching, I'm
42:34
Speaker 1: going to recommend that you go on and watch the
42:37
Speaker 1: gen Z Historian on TikTok because you just should. And
42:43
Speaker 1: I said so because that's the whole point of this,
42:46
Speaker 1: isn't it. For listening, go listen to Redacted History because
42:53
Speaker 1: they're doing much more with this than I am. And again,
42:58
Speaker 1: I'm all about sharing and care. So go listen to them.
43:02
Speaker 1: Feel free to tell them who sent you, because I'm
43:04
Speaker 1: cool like that. For go listen listen to himself over there,
43:09
Speaker 1: he's fab And finally, for reading, you know what you
43:14
Speaker 1: should read. You should read Why I'm no Longer talking
43:18
Speaker 1: to White people about race Like It's a it's a
43:21
Speaker 1: stellar book. It's very eye opening. Go read it. It's
43:27
Speaker 1: it's just a generally good idea for you. And I
43:30
Speaker 1: realized that I kind of went more black centric than
43:32
Speaker 1: I did anything else here in their recommendations. I will
43:36
Speaker 1: have plenty of gay things to share throughout the month.
43:40
Speaker 1: Do not worry about it. I have you covered, trust me,
43:45
Speaker 1: trust me. Okay, but yes, now that we've gone through
43:50
Speaker 1: all that, I am going to issue good Night Adios
43:55
Speaker 1: au revoir of wad is Zen my friends, Bye bye,