Freethought under Fire

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter traces the clash between D.M. Bennett and Anthony Comstock, showing how prosecutions over Cupid’s Yokes escalate into a broader battle between freethinkers and religious moralists. It shows how Bennett’s conviction, imprisonment, and death transform him into a martyr while deepening divisions within the freethought movement, as moderates like Robert Ingersoll distance themselves from radicals demanding repeal of the Comstock laws. The chapter then follows Comstock’s consolidation of influence in the 1880s, his religiously driven campaign against vice, and his publications Frauds Exposed and Traps for the Young, which brand freethinkers as infidels conspiring against Christian morality. It also highlights Ingersoll’s prominence as the “Great Agnostic,” his lectures defending free inquiry, secularism, and women’s rights, and the persistence of local freethought organizations despite internal fractures and opposition. Finally, the chapter examines the continued prosecutions of figures such as Charles B. Reynolds, Ezra and Angela Heywood, and Moses Harman, underscoring both the resilience of freethought and the unrelenting hostility it faces from religious and legal authorities.</jats:p>