Rachel Hope Cleves (born 1975) is an American-Canadian historian, best known for her 2014 book Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America.^[1] The book, a study of historical documents concerning the same-sex relationship of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake in the 19th century, was a shortlisted Lambda Literary Award nominee for LGBT Studies at the 27th Lambda Literary Awards.^[2]

Born in New York City in 1975, Cleves studied at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a professor at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia since 2009.^[3] She is a specialist in early American history, with research areas including gender and sexuality, the American relationship with the French Revolution, and the War of 1812.^[4]

She has also published the books, The Reign of Terror in America: Visions of Violence from Anti-Jacobinism to Antislavery (2009), as well as articles in journals such as Early American Studies, Reviews in American History and the Journal of American History.

In 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.^[5]

• Rachel Hope Cleves (2009). The Reign of Terror in America: Visions of Violence from Anti-Jacobinism to Antislavery. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107403987.
• Rachel Hope Cleves (2014). Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190627317.
• Rachel Hope Cleves (2020). Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226733531.
• Rachel Hope Cleves (2024). Lustful Appetites: An Intimate History of Good Food and Wicked Sex. Polity. ISBN 978-1509553631.

• Rachel Hope Cleves