Colonial and Revolutionary America Essay 5 to 6 pages

Women, Law, and Society in British North America, 1630-1790 R I G H T S A N D R E S P O N S I B I L I T I E S I N FA M I LY A N D C O M M U N I T Y

Women Under English Law Married women could appear in court accompanied by husband (95% of women in colonial America married at some point)

Were sometimes called upon to give official testimony as mothers or matrons, midwives

Special panel of women convened in extraordinary cases

Six reasons women most commonly came before the courts: • Debt

• Divorce

• Illicit consensual sex

• Rape

• Slander

• Probate (settlement and administration of wills)

Women in British North America, 1630- 1775

White women could not serve as jurors, voters, or officeholders • (also true for men without property, all black people, Indians, “idiots,” and children)

Women under English legal tradition: • Single and widowed white women had some legal standing – could sue and be sued, convey property,

write wills

• Women could not vote, married women enjoyed limited property rights (doctrine of coverture)

• Widows entitled to 1/3 of the husbands property at death (“widow’s thirds”)

• English law dictated the husband had the right to manage wife’s property (dower assets)

Women often granted larger share of estate, widows frequently acted as administratrix

Women in the 17th-Century Chesapeake

Most women came to the Chesapeake as servants

• English servants had specific rights, often overlooked

• Scarcity of people, especially women elevated their importance in society and under the law

Surest way to wealth was widowhood – significant in society with high death rates like the Chesapeake

Multiple marriages meant some of the wealthiest people in Virginia were women

Case of Sarah Offley-Thorowgood (Gookin, Yeardley) b. ~1609

m. Adam Thorowgood in 1627 Thorowgood dies 1640

m. John Gookin (age 28) 1641 Gookin dies 1643

m. Francis Yeardley (age 23) 1647 Yeardley dies 1857

Sarah Offley-Thorowgood-Gookin-Yeardley d. 1657

Women and the Law in New England 17th Century New England: Different (more religious) interpretation of the law

• Godliness of the people & community – and by extension, Magistrates (judges) – allowed “no sin to go uncovered” • Juries rare

• Witness testimony rare

• Focus on confessions

• Strove for a single standard for men & women under the law

Results: • 85% of criminal defendants confessed

• Swift justice

• Sentences varied widely (discretion of the magistrate)

• Men often punished more severely than women for sexual misconduct

Women, Commerce, and Law in the Colonies

17th Century

Importance of household production meant women occupied prominent role in the economy and debtor- creditor relations • Oral Agreements

• Book debt

• Trade in goods as well as money

• Wives more easily located

• Often called to court to testify with (or rarely on behalf) of their husbands

18th Century

Economic changes after 1690 mean women play smaller role in business affairs • Trade between towns, cities, colonies, other Atlantic economies

• Use of paper debt – bills of exchange – to conduct transactions

The Case of Martha Ballard http://stream.wrlc.org/mvmu/PBS/pbs_amx001_800k.mp4