(Sexual Consent) [Safety First Guarantee]

(Mann White-Slave Act) (Sexual Consent) [Safety First Guarantee]. N.p., n.d. [after 1910, ca. 1930]. Ditto? card, printed recto only, 4-316 x 7-18 in., toned.

A semi-serious sexual consent card, intended to indemnify a male against a Mann Act claim and a compelling early 20th-century precursor to the language of consent currently being considered in legal and institutional contexts. Enacted in 1910 at the height of “white slavery” hysteria, the Mann Act made interstate travel by a man and a women with the intent of committing sexual acts a crime. Its original ambiguous language, establishing a felony charge against the transport of “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose,” was infamously used to criminialize sexual behavior, even among consenting adults.

In particular, it was used to target interracial couples who travelled across state lines (e.g. Jack Johnson and Chuck Berry). The document certifies that an undersigned female is “above the age of consent, [in] my right mind and not under the influence of any drug or narcotic. Neither does he have to use any force, threats or promise to influence me. I am in no fear of him whatever; do not expect or want to marry him, don't know whether he is married or not, and don't care. I am not asleep or drunk and am entering into this relation with him because I love it and want it as much as he does [...]. Furthermore, I agree never to appear as a witness against him, or to prosecute under the Mann White Slave Act.” 

The few known references to this gag indicate it was circulating in the 1920s before being updated for use by servicemen during WWII and the Korean War. Comparison with this evolving language suggests that our card was printed sometime in the late 1920s. A worthy object for further study. Only two copies are recorded in North American institutions, both considerably later than this example: Univ. of Rochester and Pepperdine. SOLD