I just started watching Deadwood, which is set in the 1870's in South Dakota, and certain profane words like "Cocksucker" seem way more prevalent than I thought they would be. To be honest I haven't exactly given the topic of old western profanity much thought to begin with, but the series seems to include a number of real historical events and people so I was wondering if this was an actual feature of society at the time or if it's just another way to pump the rating up to 18+.
New York Magazine did a piece on this subject back when the show first aired.
The show's creator, David Milch, argued that it's historical, but he's getting a lot of pushback from Jesse Sheidlower, the American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and a scholar of cursing:
“There were cursing contests when cowboys would get together and insult each other,” he says. But “the evidence that we have is that they were using more religious blasphemy than the sexual insults which are popular today.”
In the piece, both people cite sources to back up their claims.
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_10191/