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From the Vault - William Dorsey Swann- Queen of Drag · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:12
Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to an episode from the
0:16
Speaker 1: vault of Who Did What Now? The history podcast that
0:20
Speaker 1: is Not Your History Class with me your host Katie Charlwood,
0:25
Speaker 1: history Harlotte and reader of books. As many of you know,
0:30
Speaker 1: it is Black History Month over in America, but not
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Speaker 1: only that, it is the centenary of the origins of
0:38
Speaker 1: Black History Month, so like one hundred years ago, it
0:41
Speaker 1: started out as like a Black History Week and then
0:45
Speaker 1: slowly but surely became Black History Month. And so historically
0:50
Speaker 1: this is a big deal. And since I've started doing
0:54
Speaker 1: themes both on the social media and on the podcast,
0:58
Speaker 1: I thought, well, you know what, let's just do it.
1:00
Speaker 1: Let's just do a Black History Month, and we'll do
1:02
Speaker 1: it like as we were doing things before. We'll start
1:05
Speaker 1: off with the Transatlantic slave Trade and just try and
1:08
Speaker 1: go as chronologically forward as we can, Like we'll just try,
1:13
Speaker 1: you know. And I thought that would be like a
1:15
Speaker 1: really good, a really good way to teach and share
1:18
Speaker 1: this information, because it's not something that's taught in every
1:22
Speaker 1: single history class, Like I was just lucky that this
1:26
Speaker 1: was part of my education. And also because I'm a hungry,
1:30
Speaker 1: hungry hippo when it comes to history. I'm a flosy
1:34
Speaker 1: for facts, Matilia. They don't call me the history Haled
1:38
Speaker 1: for nothing. And the thing about history is like, as
1:41
Speaker 1: a general rule, is that it's quite depressing. Bad things
1:45
Speaker 1: keep happening consecutively, one after another in a row, and
1:50
Speaker 1: that's the stuff that people write down. So when I
1:53
Speaker 1: do get the chance to talk about someone amazing and
1:58
Speaker 1: wonderful and brilliant, like, I grasp that with two hands,
2:03
Speaker 1: especially when you have to talk about just the horrible
2:06
Speaker 1: injustices that people had to go through consistently. And I've
2:11
Speaker 1: been talking about some bad stuff over the last week
2:15
Speaker 1: in a bit so far, and I think let's have
2:18
Speaker 1: a palate cleanser and talk about someone fucking fantastic. Oh,
2:22
Speaker 1: by the way, there's a possibility I'm swearing like a
2:26
Speaker 1: sailor in this I don't remember. And so yes, welcome
2:31
Speaker 1: to the life of one William Dorsey Swan. And I
2:37
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. You're thinking quite your jibbel jabber,
2:40
Speaker 1: in fact me, In fact you, I will. But first
2:45
Speaker 1: we've got to get our source on. Our sources are
2:50
Speaker 1: House of Swan, where slaves became queens by Channing Gerard
2:56
Speaker 1: Joseph well, I'm Dorsey Swan, the Queen of Drag by
3:03
Speaker 1: Natitia Curry, the first self proclaimed drag queen was a
3:07
Speaker 1: formerly enslaved man by Carrie Shane Records of the Office
3:13
Speaker 1: of Pardon Attorney Nai D one six five one to
3:17
Speaker 1: eight four eight five. Yeah, but you weren't expecting something
3:20
Speaker 1: proper on here. Yeah, I look at records, which is
3:24
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things to do. Listen, we all
3:27
Speaker 1: have hobbies. Finally, we have our favorites, History dot com,
3:33
Speaker 1: Biography dot com, and Smithsonian dot com. Iositing comfortably good,
3:40
Speaker 1: then let's begin. William Dorsey Swan was born William Henry
3:45
Speaker 1: Yunker in Washington County, Maryland, USA, eighteen fifty eight. He
3:52
Speaker 1: was born to Mary Jane Yunker and Andrew Jackson Swan.
4:00
Speaker 1: Mary Jane she was I don't want to say a
4:03
Speaker 1: housekeeper because she was enslaved. So she was an enslaved housekeeper.
4:08
Speaker 1: And Andrew Jackson Swan he was a wheat farmer, an
4:13
Speaker 1: enslaved wheat farmer. I mean, I suppose an enslaved labor
4:19
Speaker 1: is probably the better term. And he's also a musician,
4:23
Speaker 1: so they are slaves. They have twelve thirteen children who
4:29
Speaker 1: are slaves, because that's how chattel slavery works. You are
4:34
Speaker 1: a slave, your ancestors are slaves, and your children are slaves.
4:41
Speaker 1: Now you may notice one that we actually have a
4:44
Speaker 1: birthday first one, which is shocking because it's you know,
4:49
Speaker 1: an enslaved person from the past. And all I can
4:52
Speaker 1: think of is the pessimistic side of me is like,
4:57
Speaker 1: maybe people were just people. White people were just really
5:01
Speaker 1: good at keeping receipts, you know, which really just sucks
5:07
Speaker 1: because people are not property, basic basic human rights. So
5:14
Speaker 1: Swan and his twelve siblings, and his mom and his dad,
5:20
Speaker 1: they are all the legal property of Anne Murray, a
5:24
Speaker 1: white woman who owned a plantation. So yeah, he's born
5:29
Speaker 1: on a plantation as a slave, and he grows up
5:34
Speaker 1: working for this woman. I say working, but you know,
5:39
Speaker 1: doing stuff without pay or compensation for labor for the
5:46
Speaker 1: next four years until Union soldiers arrive in the winter
5:52
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty two and they're like, yeah, and you
5:58
Speaker 1: kind of know do that though, you know, you can't
6:01
Speaker 1: own people. It's kind of wrong. So basically, after the
6:09
Speaker 1: end of the American Civil War, you know, they're freed.
6:13
Speaker 1: So the family is freed, and his parents managed to
6:19
Speaker 1: purchase a land with a plot of land in order
6:22
Speaker 1: to you know, set up their own farm. Now, you
6:27
Speaker 1: may have also noticed that he started life with a
6:31
Speaker 1: different name, and the reason his surname is Yunker not
6:34
Speaker 1: Swan is because enslaved people could not legally marry technically
6:39
Speaker 1: because they weren't seen as humans. And this resulted in
6:46
Speaker 1: William legally taking the surname of his mother and not
6:51
Speaker 1: his dad. But once you know, freedom came about, he
6:56
Speaker 1: was able to actually have his father's surname, which, of course,
7:01
Speaker 1: back in the day, big deal. I mean, it's bad enough.
7:07
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, wait a minute, sorry, my brain just
7:11
Speaker 1: had a little sparky explosion in it. Now, you know,
7:15
Speaker 1: this a very racist concept of black men not supporting
7:21
Speaker 1: their families in abandoning they could. This like initial stereotype
7:29
Speaker 1: sort of spring from this era where children would not
7:35
Speaker 1: necessarily take, you know that the name of their parents
7:41
Speaker 1: in an era where lineage is very important, but they
7:44
Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily take the name of their dad because they
7:49
Speaker 1: couldn't legally because of you know, they not being able
7:52
Speaker 1: to marry. It. Maybe that's a that's a part of it, perchance. Anyway,
8:00
Speaker 1: point being gets his dad's name, and he ends up
8:03
Speaker 1: living with his family and so he's on the farm.
8:07
Speaker 1: And then as he gets older, he gets a job
8:09
Speaker 1: as a waiter because you know, he needs money to survive,
8:14
Speaker 1: which is just a general, a general way of life.
8:18
Speaker 1: So he ends up moving away from his family and
8:22
Speaker 1: going to Washington, d C. To the capital because that's
8:26
Speaker 1: where the jobs are. And so he goes there in
8:29
Speaker 1: order to make more money and support his family. And
8:32
Speaker 1: so he goes there and he starts working as a
8:34
Speaker 1: janitor at the Spencerian Business College, owned by Henry and
8:40
Speaker 1: Sarah Spencer. Now it is being suggested that it's during
8:44
Speaker 1: this time where he's working at the business college that
8:47
Speaker 1: William learns to read and write. See, this is a
8:51
Speaker 1: period of time where literacy levels are not high at
8:54
Speaker 1: the best of times, Like if you are from a
8:57
Speaker 1: lower class or working class, like, chance is that you're litterate,
9:03
Speaker 1: not great, to be honest. So the fact that William
9:07
Speaker 1: can read and write as a former slave is a
9:12
Speaker 1: huge fucking deal. Like it either means that his parents
9:17
Speaker 1: went to a massive effort to ensure that he had
9:21
Speaker 1: an opportunity to actually move forward in life, or that
9:25
Speaker 1: William had the fucking tenacity and the absolute balls, sorry
9:30
Speaker 1: to chucking money from last week, had the absolute balls
9:33
Speaker 1: to come forward and put the effort in and the
9:36
Speaker 1: drive to learn to read and write like it's not
9:41
Speaker 1: an easy task if you haven't done it, like as
9:44
Speaker 1: a young child likes. It's tough, and he's doing this
9:50
Speaker 1: so like. The assumption is that he learned to do
9:52
Speaker 1: it while he was at the college, although we don't
9:54
Speaker 1: have any evidence to suggest that he could have very
9:59
Speaker 1: well been taught by someone like back in his hometown.
10:04
Speaker 1: He could have done that. But he can read him right,
10:09
Speaker 1: and things are going okay for William, and it's it's
10:13
Speaker 1: relatively uneventful until eighteen eighty two, where he is arrested
10:20
Speaker 1: because he stole a bunch of shit. He is taken
10:24
Speaker 1: to court and he pleads guilty for stealing books and
10:30
Speaker 1: party supplies from the Washington Library Company and from stealing
10:37
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff that we don't actually know what
10:39
Speaker 1: he took, but he took things. Stuff. Gizmo's and gadgets
10:43
Speaker 1: are plenty. Who is it some what's it's galore? You
10:46
Speaker 1: want to think of my Bob's. Oh, he's got twenty
10:51
Speaker 1: which he pilfered from the home of his bosses, Henry
10:56
Speaker 1: and Sarah Spencer. So he is sentenced to seven months
11:00
Speaker 1: in jail for like collectively for these crimes. So William
11:05
Speaker 1: Darcy Swan. So he's in jail for petty larceny, and
11:11
Speaker 1: something weird happens. So his sentencing judge, the judge who
11:18
Speaker 1: like sentenced him to the jail time, the assistant district attorney,
11:25
Speaker 1: employees of the Washington Library Company, and his employers, the Spencers,
11:36
Speaker 1: they apply for a petition of pardon. So effectively, President
11:44
Speaker 1: Gover Cleveland he had these like an option of a
11:48
Speaker 1: like a presidential pardon, you know, for people who don't
11:51
Speaker 1: deserve to be in jail, who deserve a pardon. So
11:55
Speaker 1: this petition is signed and they basically state that he
11:59
Speaker 1: was just trying to get an education and help his family.
12:02
Speaker 1: And the judge is, like, other people who were involved
12:04
Speaker 1: in this crime were already let go, so like this
12:08
Speaker 1: seems a bit harsh, slash unfair, slashed away bit racist,
12:12
Speaker 1: you know, And his employers are talking about how great
12:16
Speaker 1: a character he is and how they're just going to
12:19
Speaker 1: give him his job back once he gets out of jail.
12:22
Speaker 1: And it's you know, a lifetime job doesn't have to worry.
12:26
Speaker 1: And this is like my favorite thing is they're talking
12:30
Speaker 1: about his character and I'm going to do my fulgorn
12:33
Speaker 1: like grown voice, So just appreciate it. He was free
12:37
Speaker 1: from vast, industrious or a fan in his habits and associations,
12:41
Speaker 1: gentle in his disposition, courtious, and who's burn. That is
12:46
Speaker 1: my full grown, like grown voice, and it needs some work,
12:48
Speaker 1: but you know it's getting there. So basically, they're saying
12:52
Speaker 1: that he is just a good, kind, wonderful dude. He's
12:56
Speaker 1: just trying to better himself and do right by his family,
13:00
Speaker 1: and that he deserves to, you know, get out. So like, yeah,
13:07
Speaker 1: you've got all of these people approving it, you know,
13:09
Speaker 1: the assistant US disc attorney, the judge, all of these
13:13
Speaker 1: employees and his employers, like everybody's all like, let this
13:16
Speaker 1: man out of jail, you pricks. Now, we don't actually
13:20
Speaker 1: know if the party went through, we don't have that documentation,
13:24
Speaker 1: but we know it was like applied for. So eventually
13:29
Speaker 1: William gets out of jail, he goes back to work,
13:32
Speaker 1: and he starts hosting these parties for his community. And
13:38
Speaker 1: so they happen in different places so sometimes they would
13:43
Speaker 1: be in somebody's house. Sometimes it would be the YMCA.
13:47
Speaker 1: They were secret affairs, invitation only, well, I see invitation only,
13:54
Speaker 1: Like people would just show up. Sometimes for some it
13:57
Speaker 1: was like a known secret, an open secret, and for
14:00
Speaker 1: others it was not that. And so these drag parties
14:08
Speaker 1: would happen. Now and now we're getting nerdy about words.
14:13
Speaker 1: So these parties are happening, and they're basically like balls.
14:18
Speaker 1: So they're dressing up in fabulous outfits and it's sort
14:22
Speaker 1: of what would become like the ballroom scene. You know,
14:27
Speaker 1: the ball I should say, and if you've seen Pose,
14:31
Speaker 1: go watch Pose and you'll get an idea. And so
14:34
Speaker 1: it was like these drag shows and they would have
14:39
Speaker 1: these groups and they would just sort of show off
14:42
Speaker 1: their fabulous like skills and moves and attire and the
14:50
Speaker 1: whole thing about drag, like the name the word is
14:55
Speaker 1: that it could come from two separate sort of concepts.
14:59
Speaker 1: One is your glad rags. Now, glad rags are sort
15:05
Speaker 1: of your fancy clothes. You're going out clothes. You're going
15:08
Speaker 1: out out clothes because you're going out out your fancy
15:12
Speaker 1: you know, you are the bee's knees you are fab
15:16
Speaker 1: you LUs darling, and so it could come from that,
15:22
Speaker 1: or it could come from grand rag, which is a
15:29
Speaker 1: term for a masquerade ball. So we've got these two
15:34
Speaker 1: very sort of viable options, and I'd be happy if
15:37
Speaker 1: it comes from either way. But that's basically where the
15:41
Speaker 1: word drag comes from. Or we think we don't have
15:46
Speaker 1: like a proper thing, we don't have a proper etymological
15:51
Speaker 1: sort of tree for it, but there it is. There,
15:55
Speaker 1: it is. So William Dorsey Swan is hosting these part
16:01
Speaker 1: and he is known as Queeny Swan or Mother Swan
16:05
Speaker 1: sort of at these events, and there are butlers and
16:11
Speaker 1: coachmen and many many former enslaved people, including one mister Lafayette.
16:23
Speaker 1: Lafayette I can hit myself. Pierce Lafayette was once a slave.
16:32
Speaker 1: He was the property of the vice President of the
16:36
Speaker 1: Confederate States of America, Alexander H. Stevens. Yeah. Yeah, and
16:46
Speaker 1: he's like, oh no. So these parties were absolutely amazing.
16:54
Speaker 1: They would do sort of singing and dancing, they would
16:59
Speaker 1: do talent competitions. They would have galas where they would
17:03
Speaker 1: parade in their outfits and they would do this cakewalk
17:09
Speaker 1: now or their version of a cakewalk. Now, the cakewalk
17:13
Speaker 1: was a sort of act a dancer performance which mocked
17:19
Speaker 1: slave owners. And I think that's this is just something
17:22
Speaker 1: fucking beautiful about that. And that was one of the
17:25
Speaker 1: things that people would do. So there was the people
17:33
Speaker 1: who would go there. Like it wasn't just you know,
17:37
Speaker 1: the gay community. There were straight men there, they were
17:41
Speaker 1: white men, black men. There was just like a huge crowd.
17:48
Speaker 1: I remember how I said these parties were like an
17:50
Speaker 1: open secret. So it gets to the point where the
17:54
Speaker 1: police are getting tips, are being tipped off on this right,
17:58
Speaker 1: and they they are formed of this scandalous escapade where
18:05
Speaker 1: there are black men in full female costumes. They are
18:13
Speaker 1: cross dressing. Now during this time, like these laws are
18:18
Speaker 1: coming in about cross dressing und across the US, it
18:22
Speaker 1: is becoming illegal to wear clothes of the opposite gender.
18:27
Speaker 1: So whatever you are presenting, whether it's male or female,
18:33
Speaker 1: you have to like wear the clothes of you know,
18:36
Speaker 1: your assigned gender at birth, effectively. So this is going
18:41
Speaker 1: around and they get this tip off about this party
18:45
Speaker 1: and there's like men in costumes but only men black men,
18:49
Speaker 1: which is somehow worse okay, you know, because racism, And
18:55
Speaker 1: they break in to a party. They break and they
18:59
Speaker 1: read the party and l Street northwest right and Swan's
19:07
Speaker 1: beautiful home, which apparently was decorated very tastefully, which I'm
19:14
Speaker 1: not surprised. Clearly the man had taste. So there are
19:19
Speaker 1: men in gowns and there are drums and fiddles and
19:25
Speaker 1: banjos and they're just having a swell time. But they
19:30
Speaker 1: get arrested and shit goes down yadiyardiaa. And the next
19:34
Speaker 1: year it happens again, but it's on his thirtieth birthday party.
19:41
Speaker 1: So it's William Dorsey Swan's party, and the police fucking
19:46
Speaker 1: show up, and there's Pierce Lafayette and a bunch of
19:49
Speaker 1: other dudes and they are all in like makeup and
19:54
Speaker 1: powdered wigs in these big fancy costumes, and you know
19:58
Speaker 1: they're they're dancing, they're a good time. They're just living
20:01
Speaker 1: their best lives as they can, you know, relatively, you know,
20:05
Speaker 1: lower rungs of society, and you know, the nineteenth century,
20:11
Speaker 1: not sipper, but you know, doing the best with the
20:15
Speaker 1: hand they have been dealt. And again the police have
20:19
Speaker 1: to crash the fucking party, like Buzz Kellington, and they
20:24
Speaker 1: decide that Swan soirees don't deserve, you know, to happen,
20:30
Speaker 1: because what else. So they raid the party and I'm
20:37
Speaker 1: not going to say the word, but there's an article
20:42
Speaker 1: headline which basically says N word dive rated and word
20:49
Speaker 1: dove rated. Thirteen black men rested as women surprised at
20:53
Speaker 1: supper and arrested. Listen, if they're gonna be racist, I'm
20:56
Speaker 1: gonna do a folk on leg convoice. Okay, that's just
20:58
Speaker 1: how it works. So basically the police just being absolute
21:05
Speaker 1: bob bags, by the way, but they are hindled by
21:11
Speaker 1: Swan himself because he has been dealing with this a
21:16
Speaker 1: long bloody time, like he's used to being raided. He's
21:21
Speaker 1: used to like having to deal with this shit from
21:23
Speaker 1: the cops, right, and so instead of you know, letting
21:27
Speaker 1: them just burst through and do their thing, William says,
21:32
Speaker 1: fuck this for a game of soldiers and physically blocks
21:37
Speaker 1: the door, and he physically holds the cops back just
21:41
Speaker 1: by blocking the space that a bunch of people manage
21:47
Speaker 1: to escape, Like people are jumping out of windows. You know,
21:50
Speaker 1: they're hiding in cupboards, which is you know, literally heading
21:54
Speaker 1: in closets. Not the best move. Lads, but do what
21:57
Speaker 1: you need to do. But I think like nearly twenty
22:00
Speaker 1: people managed to escape because of this, and all in all,
22:03
Speaker 1: twelve men end up being arrested. The Swan is just
22:07
Speaker 1: there standing up to them, and he does so in
22:11
Speaker 1: a cream satin dress. Okay, first of all, this dress
22:18
Speaker 1: is dry clean only melanie. And secondly, if William is
22:23
Speaker 1: going to do something, he is going to do it
22:24
Speaker 1: in style. So the police managed to get in and
22:28
Speaker 1: they fucking tear the dress to shreds. They're probably just
22:32
Speaker 1: so incensed that he has the goal to stand up
22:36
Speaker 1: to them and also do it so well well in
22:39
Speaker 1: a gown like probably looking like a beautiful debutante, like gorgeous.
22:46
Speaker 1: I Bury was gorgeous, you know mm. But like my
22:50
Speaker 1: favorite part is like he's standing there blocking the door
22:54
Speaker 1: and you know this long, cream, satiny, silky gown and
23:00
Speaker 1: straight up says to the officers you is no gentleman.
23:07
Speaker 2: Like I love the fact that then a fight ensues
23:12
Speaker 2: and like he's just physically fighting the police in a
23:15
Speaker 2: gown which again does get torn to shreds because of
23:18
Speaker 2: course they.
23:19
Speaker 1: Do, but still fucking yours William. So by doing this,
23:29
Speaker 1: by performing this action by standing up to the place
23:32
Speaker 1: and physically stopping them. Like this is probably one of
23:37
Speaker 1: the first, I think one of the first cases of
23:41
Speaker 1: like resistance and violent activism in sort of the name
23:47
Speaker 1: of LGBTQ, right, you know, this is this is why
23:54
Speaker 1: William Dortey Swann is an activist, because he did so
23:59
Speaker 1: much to pretend to members of his community. He protected
24:02
Speaker 1: his friends. You know, he's just fucking amazing. Now, over
24:08
Speaker 1: the next few years, the parties just kind of move around,
24:10
Speaker 1: right because they have to hold them secretly because the
24:13
Speaker 1: police are fucking raiding everything. Right, And for the next
24:17
Speaker 1: like eight years, we don't really hear or see much
24:21
Speaker 1: of like Swan's activities, Like we don't know what's kind
24:24
Speaker 1: of going on until eighteen ninety six, when the shit
24:31
Speaker 1: hits the fan and William Dorsey Swan gets arrested for
24:36
Speaker 1: holding a gala for the second time on the first
24:40
Speaker 1: of January. He is charged with keeping a disorderly house,
24:46
Speaker 1: which is basically you've missed him for running a brothel
24:50
Speaker 1: because you know, gay people can't exist in places unless
24:55
Speaker 1: they're shagging, which is the rule of it. He's holding
24:59
Speaker 1: a drag but he's accused of basically holding an orgy,
25:05
Speaker 1: because those are the same thing according to these weird puritans.
25:10
Speaker 1: It's fucking ridiculous. Now I'm gonna try and read this
25:13
Speaker 1: article from the eighteen ninety six Evening Star. I'm gonna
25:21
Speaker 1: try and do that without reading the racist bets. So
25:25
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try because paraphrasing it's fine, Okay, I am
25:29
Speaker 1: going to do the four corn micron voice. So prepare
25:31
Speaker 1: to suffer. William Dorsy Swan, at whose house number one
25:36
Speaker 1: five oh four els read northwest a drag was rated
25:40
Speaker 1: about two weeks ago, and who was convicted in the
25:43
Speaker 1: police court last week of a charge of keeping a
25:46
Speaker 1: disorderly house, was sentenced to turn months in jail by
25:49
Speaker 1: George Miller. Today, I said, I said, this was a
25:54
Speaker 1: case in which a number of men were found in
25:56
Speaker 1: this place, which George Miller characterized as a hell of iniquity.
26:03
Speaker 1: There were several men reported to be of character of Swan,
26:08
Speaker 1: of the character of Swan, and during the trial of
26:11
Speaker 1: the case in court there appeared young men of respectable
26:15
Speaker 1: parentage who thought of how they had visited this place,
26:18
Speaker 1: danced and indulged in strong drink of all kinds from
26:23
Speaker 1: beer to champagne. A large stock of liquors found on
26:27
Speaker 1: the premises was in court as evidence, but d'rosay said
26:31
Speaker 1: he didn't have to buy the liquor. Indisposing of the case,
26:36
Speaker 1: Judge Miller told the fearful revelations made the trial the
26:39
Speaker 1: downfall and ruin of young men, and said he only
26:42
Speaker 1: wished you had the power to impose a ten year sentence.
26:47
Speaker 1: Beche ma behsh I would like to send you where
26:50
Speaker 1: you would never see a man's face, said the judge,
26:54
Speaker 1: and would like them to read the city of all
26:56
Speaker 1: other disreputable persons of the same kind thieve and pretty
27:00
Speaker 1: assaults amount to nothing as compared with the conduct of
27:05
Speaker 1: these people. Yeah yeah, yeah, so assault assault, this judge,
27:20
Speaker 1: This judge is saying assault as a lesser crime than
27:25
Speaker 1: being almost sexual. Let's consider that for a moment, shall we.
27:33
Speaker 1: You know, it's okay to you know, assault a person,
27:38
Speaker 1: to punch a child in the face, to stab the
27:41
Speaker 1: elderly person in the eye. That is not even remotely
27:45
Speaker 1: as bad as being gay. Like what and the name
27:51
Speaker 1: of the lor Savanathi is this what? Absolute fucking bullshit?
27:55
Speaker 1: Is this nonsense? But anyway, William down on the third
28:01
Speaker 1: of January eighteen ninety six, pleads not guilty. After this
28:07
Speaker 1: weirdly quick see racist trial and I say racist, it's
28:13
Speaker 1: also homophobic because it's the nineteenth century. And he is
28:19
Speaker 1: sentenced to ten months in jail, maybe less with good behavior,
28:23
Speaker 1: but effectively for the crime of being homosexual and having
28:28
Speaker 1: a party. Just so we're clear on what's happening. So
28:33
Speaker 1: three months into his sentence, Swan files a petition of pardon,
28:40
Speaker 1: basically saying that you know, he's a respectable, hard worker,
28:43
Speaker 1: he's had continuous employment, and that the sentence was severe
28:50
Speaker 1: in comparison to the crime, and that if he was
28:53
Speaker 1: released he would live a proper and law abiding life.
28:58
Speaker 1: So he gets his petition and then his friends, thirty
29:04
Speaker 1: of them are signatories on it. So thirty other people,
29:09
Speaker 1: whether they're from the drag community or other elsewise, they
29:12
Speaker 1: sign this petition because they're like, he deserves to be out.
29:15
Speaker 1: They sign it in a show of support. Right now,
29:21
Speaker 1: when this gets to the US Attorney AA Berney, this
29:27
Speaker 1: hasn't met with the same sort of fervor and appreciation
29:30
Speaker 1: that he's like eighteen eighty two petition was. You know,
29:36
Speaker 1: he wasn't happy with William Dorrisey Swan's life. He basically
29:43
Speaker 1: says that the petition is without merit because he's charged
29:49
Speaker 1: with having a disorderly house, because running a brothel, which
29:54
Speaker 1: he's accused of effectively, and because running a brothel is
29:57
Speaker 1: like so much worse than yes or crimes, and that
30:03
Speaker 1: he was corrupting other people, so like corrupting you know,
30:07
Speaker 1: decent you know, young men, see rich and white, as
30:13
Speaker 1: if it's his fault. His parties are so awesome that
30:15
Speaker 1: everybody wants to go to them, like come on. So
30:18
Speaker 1: while the pardon is still under review, so like before
30:21
Speaker 1: it even gets to the president right for an official pardon,
30:25
Speaker 1: William Dorsey Swan's friends start calling the US Attorney's office
30:30
Speaker 1: because they're worried about William's health. So William has a
30:35
Speaker 1: heart issue and they're like, he's not well enough to
30:38
Speaker 1: be in prison. And the doctor who had said he
30:43
Speaker 1: had like a clean bill of health conveniently beforehand in
30:48
Speaker 1: March of that year, like he comes back in July
30:52
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, his ticker is not super saying
30:56
Speaker 1: he's got like a disease of the heart and you know,
31:00
Speaker 1: not exactly tip top health wise, and so they're trying
31:03
Speaker 1: to get the pardon to go through on the basis
31:06
Speaker 1: of his health, but President Grover Cleveland denies to issue
31:13
Speaker 1: a pardon on the twenty ninth of July in eighteen
31:16
Speaker 1: ninety six, because again, the whole concept is that the
31:20
Speaker 1: conditions of jail are not conducive to you know, living
31:24
Speaker 1: a healthy life with a you know, a dodgy ticker,
31:26
Speaker 1: a dodgy heart. So Grover Cleveland, President Grover Cleveland, he
31:33
Speaker 1: says that the implications of Dorsy Swan's health were not
31:38
Speaker 1: sufficient to counter the character of his offense. So basically,
31:48
Speaker 1: if he has a heart attack and dies, like, that's
31:54
Speaker 1: fine because he's gay, Like, because the severity of the
32:03
Speaker 1: crime of being a gay man hosting a party means
32:09
Speaker 1: that you deserve to suffer ill health. And you like,
32:15
Speaker 1: what what sane person? I mean, I understand this is
32:20
Speaker 1: the past, but that's a fucking extreme view. Man. Now
32:24
Speaker 1: you can be like, why it was a different time.
32:27
Speaker 1: Yet that only works if there aren't people, you know,
32:32
Speaker 1: batting for the underdogs, if there aren't people standing up
32:35
Speaker 1: to this, and clearly there are, Otherwise we would not
32:39
Speaker 1: be in this fucking situation. Would wait so he serves
32:42
Speaker 1: his sentence, He does his time, right, does it comes
32:47
Speaker 1: back out? And what does he do? He still hosts
32:51
Speaker 1: his parties. The drag happens so like throughout this time
32:57
Speaker 1: over his lifetime sort of, William Dorsey Swan gets known
33:02
Speaker 1: as like Queeny Swan to his friends, mother Swan even
33:06
Speaker 1: and refers to himself specifically as the Queen of Drag,
33:13
Speaker 1: like the first drag queen, right, and this is him. Now.
33:19
Speaker 1: We don't know if Dorsy Swan would be what we
33:23
Speaker 1: would call transgender nowadays. We don't have that information and
33:27
Speaker 1: we don't have the ability to ask that, and even
33:33
Speaker 1: sort of the concept of gender during this time period
33:36
Speaker 1: is very is very specific, and so we wouldn't know
33:40
Speaker 1: how that would relate in modern terms. But anyway, William
33:45
Speaker 1: Dorsey Swan Queen of Drag and then keeps hosting balls
33:52
Speaker 1: until the twentieth century, like he makes it all the
33:56
Speaker 1: way to like nineteen oh one, I think before he
33:59
Speaker 1: starts sort of bowing out. Oh my goodness, I actually
34:03
Speaker 1: forgot so like the cakewalk earlier that I was describing,
34:06
Speaker 1: it has sort of these janky movements, these sharp movements,
34:11
Speaker 1: and it's not dissimilar to voguing nowadays. So I thought
34:17
Speaker 1: that was like an interesting little tippit for you, and
34:21
Speaker 1: so yeah, but back to this. So he's doing this
34:24
Speaker 1: up until like nineteen oh one where he has to
34:26
Speaker 1: just kind of bub out. Whether it was for health
34:28
Speaker 1: reasons or whatnot, we're not sure. Now two of his
34:32
Speaker 1: brothers had actually performed like in the balls doing drag, right,
34:38
Speaker 1: and one of them, Daniel. He continues to make like
34:40
Speaker 1: drag costumes like for about fifty years in total, I think, oh,
34:45
Speaker 1: in all, but yeah, up until he's like not really
34:50
Speaker 1: an active participant. William Dorsey Swan is still in the
34:57
Speaker 1: ball scene. He was hosting events and gatherings for the
35:03
Speaker 1: queer community in Washington, DC. Like he wasn't stopping even
35:08
Speaker 1: though he knew the risks to him, because this was
35:13
Speaker 1: his life, this was his people, and he wasn't going
35:17
Speaker 1: to stop for them. Now, eventually Swan does move back
35:21
Speaker 1: to Hancock in Maryland, right, he goes back, and that's
35:27
Speaker 1: him effectively retiring from the very drag scene that he created.
35:33
Speaker 1: You know that he was either the founding or at least,
35:37
Speaker 1: you know, one of the pinnacle parts of and we
35:40
Speaker 1: don't really know much about the last twenty or so
35:44
Speaker 1: years of William's life, and even the circumstances surrounding his death.
35:52
Speaker 1: We're not clear on now. It could have been old age,
35:56
Speaker 1: it could have been his heart. We just don't have
36:01
Speaker 1: the information. Like, we don't even have an exact date
36:05
Speaker 1: of death either. We know it was round about approximately
36:10
Speaker 1: nearby the twenty third of December nineteen twenty five. My
36:15
Speaker 1: part of me is like, it's good that we have
36:18
Speaker 1: some kind of idea, but I just wish we could
36:22
Speaker 1: give him the right date. I mean, I guess it's
36:25
Speaker 1: funny because we don't know his exact date of birth
36:27
Speaker 1: and we don't know his exact date of death, so
36:29
Speaker 1: it's they go weird horrible poetry to it. I suppose
36:36
Speaker 1: people always say that when something is similar one end
36:39
Speaker 1: to the other, it's like there's like a poetry to it,
36:43
Speaker 1: or hear me out, it's just you know, homophobes, racists, bigots,
36:50
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, not wanting to let the
36:53
Speaker 1: information out, to try and bury his memory, which is
36:55
Speaker 1: what they try and do. Because he passes away at
36:59
Speaker 1: the age of sixty five in Hancock, Maryland, right and
37:03
Speaker 1: his body is cremated whether that was his choice or
37:06
Speaker 1: the choice of officials or family members. Again, not not
37:12
Speaker 1: sure on that. But after he passes away, his house
37:19
Speaker 1: is leveled and when I'm see leveled, it is burnt
37:24
Speaker 1: to the ground. Apparently the destruction of property by way
37:28
Speaker 1: of fire is no longer arson if city officials are involved,
37:34
Speaker 1: like they are making sure to remove his home, to
37:37
Speaker 1: remove everything in it, artifacts, documentation, everything between, you know,
37:43
Speaker 1: and they are just shutting it down, hiding it. You know,
37:46
Speaker 1: they're trying to remove his memory, sort of information about him,
37:51
Speaker 1: his parties, his balls, his activism. But you cannot hide
37:57
Speaker 1: history forever, and it is coming back for you. I
38:02
Speaker 1: told you we are out with the era of the
38:04
Speaker 1: pale and stale males controlling the narrative, and we are
38:09
Speaker 1: going to share stories and we're going to tell the
38:12
Speaker 1: wonderful and awful and everything in between, the actual history
38:21
Speaker 1: that we deserve to know, especially by a pioneer and
38:27
Speaker 1: activist and fucking clearly amazing, wonderful human like William Dorsey Swan,
38:37
Speaker 1: the Queen of Drag. Now again, if you liked my
38:43
Speaker 1: telling of this story, feel free to about in review
38:45
Speaker 1: five stars wherever you listen to podcasts I'm so happy
38:49
Speaker 1: to be able to share this story this month. You
38:51
Speaker 1: have no idea. I'm so I'm so happy I got
38:53
Speaker 1: to do it and I got to share this with you.
38:55
Speaker 1: I'm so oh, I'm so happy. You can follow me
38:59
Speaker 1: in the socials, message connect DM, comment on stuff, share stuff,
39:06
Speaker 1: and I would love for you to share this episode.
39:09
Speaker 1: I would love for his story to just get everywhere
39:14
Speaker 1: as much as possible, because because it is so easy,
39:19
Speaker 1: it is far too easy to hide the marginalized and
39:22
Speaker 1: to sweep over their stories and to try and just
39:27
Speaker 1: make their history disappear. And I am not for that.
39:33
Speaker 1: And so if you can share this, just talk about
39:37
Speaker 1: William Dorsey Swan. You don't even need to share this episode,
39:39
Speaker 1: but I want you to talk about them because he
39:42
Speaker 1: deserves it. So follow on the socials share here. Let's
39:47
Speaker 1: just keep talking because we're living in a world that
39:51
Speaker 1: is trying to erase history and we're not gonna fucking
39:55
Speaker 1: let it. We're not going to bloody let it. Okay, Okay,
39:59
Speaker 1: good talk. So now an updated recommendation time, So for
40:05
Speaker 1: watching ze Way. You need to be watching Zeeway. She's
40:08
Speaker 1: just so fantastic and I just love I just I
40:14
Speaker 1: just I love her because I wish I could be
40:18
Speaker 1: that naturally mean. I mean I can be, but like
40:23
Speaker 1: justifiably I don't think I can be as justifiably mean
40:26
Speaker 1: as Zee, way as I love her so much. For
40:29
Speaker 1: reading the plot is Murder by vm Burns, just any
40:35
Speaker 1: of the vm Burns book but like good just trust me,
40:39
Speaker 1: you're gonna love it.
40:39
Speaker 2: If you like a.
40:40
Speaker 1: Murder mystery like me, read it. You know what. For
40:46
Speaker 1: watching Beauty Shop, so Beauty Shop starring Queen Latifah, it
40:51
Speaker 1: is just one of those fun, good movies that are wait, girls,
40:57
Speaker 1: chrap maybe oh no, no, you know, I'm gonna go
41:01
Speaker 1: Beauty Shop Beauty Shop because I think we all deserve
41:05
Speaker 1: a little bit of joy and it's such a fun
41:07
Speaker 1: You don't always have to watch something that's gonna make
41:09
Speaker 1: you cry, and I think you need to celebrate, like
41:11
Speaker 1: all of the talent that's in the movie. And so yes,
41:15
Speaker 1: Beauty Shop. And with that, I shall bid you aid
41:21
Speaker 1: you see you, same bat time, same back channel. Adios,
41:27
Speaker 1: au revoir of them, my friends, Bye bye,