Manchester University Press Women before the court: Law and patriarchy in the Anglo-American world, 1600–1800 (Gender in History)

    Women before the court: the law and the limits of property in the Anglo-American World, 1600–1800 is a ground-breaking study of women in Britain and British America. Drawing from archival sources from both sides of the Atlantic, it offers an innovative, comparative approach to the study of women’s legal rights during a formative period of Anglo-American law. It traces how colonists transplanted English legal institutions to America, examines the remarkable depth of women’s legal knowledge, and shows how the law increasingly undermined patriarchal relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, and husbands and wives. While these relationships had in the seventeenth century been defined by mutual obligations of authority and submission, the economic and legal developments of the eighteenth century gave women increasing opportunities to break the patriarchal mould.  This book will be of interest to scholars of Britain and colonial America, students of legal history, and to laypeople interested in how women in the past navigated and negotiated the structures of authority that governed them. It is packed with fascinating (and sometimes shocking) stories that women related to the courts in cases ranging from murder and abuse, to debt and estate litigation. This study adds a valuable contribution to our understandings of law, power, and gender in the early modern world. Review 'this book skilfully ties together the varied experiences of women living and litigating in England and North America across the early modern period. The book will be of interest to historians of women and legal history in Britain and the Atlantic, and should be commended for bringing together scholars who are prone to focus on particular countries or jurisdictions as case studies.' Rebecca Mason, Reviews in History 'Women before the Court offers much to scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. [...] This book may be considered required reading for scholars of women, family, property, commerce, and law in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Anglo-America. It also provides a valuable comparative overview for scholars working on the same topics in other countries and regions. For its brevity, helpful exposition of many legal complexities, long time frame, and comparative structure, Women before the Court could also make an excellent choice as a classroom text.' Journal of British Studies From the Inside Flap Women before the court: the law and the limits of property in the Anglo-American World, 16001800 is a ground-breaking study of women in Britain and British America. Drawing from archival sources from both sides of the Atlantic, it offers an innovative, comparative approach to the study of womens legal rights during a formative period of Anglo-American law. It traces how colonists transplanted English legal institutions to America, examines the remarkable depth of womens legal knowledge, and shows how the law increasingly undermined patriarchal relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, and husbands and wives. While these relationships had in the seventeenth century been defined by mutual obligations of authority and submission, the economic and legal developments of the eighteenth century gave women increasing opportunities to break the patriarchal mould. This book will be of interest to scholars of Britain and colonial America, students of legal history, and to laypeople interested in how women in the past navigated and negotiated the structures of authority that governed them. It is packed with fascinating (and sometimes shocking) stories that women related to the courts in cases ranging from murder and abuse, to debt and estate litigation. This study adds a valuable contribution to our understandings of law, power, and gender in the early modern world. From the Back Cover Women before the court: the law and the limits of property in the Anglo-Ame