Cities at Sea

British colonial cities created the most dynamic sexual cultures in the eighteenth-century Anglophone world. They were laboratories of invention and hybridization fuelled by the characteristics of early modern port cities. This essay explores how the urban colonial environment facilitated the development of these particularly dynamic sexual cultures. It focuses on the premier cities in the three principal eighteenth-century British colonial ventures: settler societies of British North America (Philadelphia); slave societies of the British West Indies (Kingston); and British mercantile communities in the East Indies (Madras and Calcutta). Philadelphia, Kingston, Madras and Calcutta each experienced rapid growth in the early decades of the eighteenth century, gaining a position of supremacy amongst their regional peers at mid-century. ¹ Eighteenth-century British colonial cities were cities at sea. Each was a port in a maritime world. Together, they formed an interconnected series of hybrid cultural landscapes. Examining them together allows us to see commonalities and illuminate transregional influences as well as local particularities. These four premier cities shared the urban colonial characteristics that facilitated the creation of dynamic sexual cultures: vibrant, expanding, commercial economies; diverse populations increasing rapidly through constant in migration; relatively weak governing institutions and multi-faceted cultural environments enriched by ethnic and religious diversity; and transoceanic communication networks via seafarers, print culture and maritime transportation.