Gender and Law in American History by Richard Chused and Wendy Williams

Table of Contents — DRAFT VERSION

Preface

Chapter 1: Women and Citizenship at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century A. Introduction B. The Gendered Politics of Citizenship and Suffrage in Early America 1. Enlightenment and the 2. Suffrage, Dependency, and Gender: The Adams Correspondence a. Letter from to (March-April, 1776) b. Commentary and Questions c. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams (April 14, 1776) d. Commentary and Questions e. Letter from Abigail Adams to (April 27, 1776) f . Commentary and Questions g. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams (May 7, 1776) h. Commentary and Questions i. Letter from John Adams to John Sullivan (May 26, 1776) j. Commentary and Questions C. Property and Citizenship: The Status of Women During and After the Revolutionary War 33 1. Martin v. State of 2. Commentary and Questions D. The Brief History of Woman Suffrage in New Jersey After the Revolutionary War 1. The Story 2. Commentary and Questions

Chapter 2: Property Reform and the First Women’s Movement A. Setting the Stage: The Ohio Married Women’s Property Act of 1846 1. The Statute 2. Commentary and Questions 3. Marital Property Law’s Common Law and Equity Heritage a. Introduction b. BLACKSTONE’S COMMENTARIES c. Commentary and Questions ELIZABETH BOWLES WARBASSE, THE CHANGING LEGAL RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN, 1800-1861 (1987) 4. Ohio Law Before Adoption of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1846 a. Introduction

i b. The Courts and Married Women’s Property (1) Early Cases: Ramsdall v. Craighill (2) Commentary and Questions (3) Early Cases: Lessee of Canby v. Porter (4) Commentary and Questions 5. Adoption of Early Married Women’s Property Acts in Other States a. Mississippi Married Women’s Property Act of 1839 b. Commentary and Questions 6. Gender in Early America B. Property Reform and the Ohio Women’s Movement after 1850 1. The Salem, Ohio Convention of 1850 and its Immediate Aftermath a. Introduction NANCY F. COTT, THE BONDS OF WOMANHOOD: “WOMAN’S SPHERE” IN NEW ENGLAND, 1780-1835, at 50-59 (1977) b. Seneca Falls as a Model c. Commentary and Questions d. J. Elizabeth Jones’ Salem Oration: “The Wrongs of Woman” e. Commentary and Questions 2. History of Ohio’s 1857 Married Women’s Property Act a. The 1854 Legislative Session b. Commentary and Questions c. The 1857 Legislative Session d. The Married Women’s Property Act of 1857 e. Commentary and Questions 3. Reforms in the Late Nineteenth Century: 1861-1884 a. The 1861 Married Woman’s Property Act b. The Text of the 1861 Act c. Commentary and Questions Amy Dru Stanley, Conjugal Bonds and Wage Labor: Rights of Contract in the Age of Emancipation, 75 J. AMER. HIST. 471-500 (1988) d. A Comparison: The New York Married Women’s Property Acts of 1860 and 1862. e. Commentary and Questions f. The Last Reforms: The Married Woman’s Separate Estate as Capital for Investment by Women (1) Machir v. Burroughs (2) Commentary and Questions (3) Married Women’s Act of 1866 (4) Married Women’s Act of 1871 (5) Commentary and Questions (6) The Final Nineteenth Century Legislative Enactments (7) Commentary and Questions

Chapter 3: Divorce in the Nineteenth Century A. Introduction B. Setting the Stage

ii 1. The Indiana Divorce Act of 1818 2. Commentary and Questions C. Easing Access to Divorce: 1824 to 1852 1. The Indiana Divorce Reform Statutes 2. Divorce Reform Debates: Robert Dale Owen and the Growth of Divorce Elizabeth B. Clark, Matrimonial Bonds: Slavery and Divorce in Nineteenth- Century America, 8 LAW & HIST. REV. 25 (1990) 183 3. Commentary and Questions 187 D. Indiana as a Divorce Mill: Public Controversy and Conservative Reaction 188 1. Indiana Legal Developments: From Divorce Mill to Termination of Migratory Divorce 188 a. McQuigg v. McQuigg 188 b. Commentary and Questions 189 c. The Divorce Mill’s End 191 2. The Great National Divorce Debate: Greeley, Owen and Stanton 192 a. Horace Greeley Essay 194 b. Commentary and Questions 195 c. Owen’s Response to Greeley 197 d. Commentary and Questions 200 e. Greeley Reply to Owen 200 f. Commentary and Questions 203 g. Another Owen Response 204 h. Greeley’s Next Rejoinder 206 i. Commentary and Questions 208 j. Owen Begins to Wind Down the Debate 209 k. Commentary and Questions 211 l. Stanton Enters the Fray 212 m. Commentary and Questions 214 3. Schliemann and McFarland: Feminists Split and Divorce Mill Ends 215 a. The Stories 215 b. Commentary and Questions 221 E. Divorce and Writing History: Research Methodology, Legal Norms and Judicial Reality in Nineteenth Century Divorce 223

Chapter 4: Child Custody in the Nineteenth Century 230 A. Introduction 230 B. Setting the Stage: Parent and Child at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century 231 1. Introduction: Early Child Custody Reform 231 2. Barrere v. Barrere 234 3. Commentary and Questions 239 C. Shifting Standards: Maternal Preference and the Best Interests of the Child 240 1. Introduction to the Mercein Litigation 240 2. The Mercein Litigation 242 a. Opinion of Chancellor Walworth 244 b. Commentary and Questions 252 D. Mid-Century Debates About Child Custody 255

iii 1. The Contours of Early Protests Against Paternal Authority Over Children 255 a. The Marriage Contract of and Harry Blackwell 255 b. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments 257 2. Precursors to the New York Married Women’s Act of 1860 258 a. 1854 Women’s Rights Convention in Albany, NY 258 (1) Convention Speech 258 (2) Woman's Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854 266 b. Commentary and Questions 269 Report of the Select Committee of 1854 270 Report of the Judiciary Committee of 1856 273 3. The New York Act of 1860 274 E. Child Custody at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 275 1. Introduction 276 2. A Typical Custody Opinion: Sternberger v. Sternberger 276 3. Commentary and Questions 282

Chapter 5: Reproduction in the Nineteenth Century: Infanticide, Birth Control, and Abortion 284 A. Introduction 284 B. Demographic Data 286 1. Infant Mortality 287 2. Commentary and Questions 287 3. Child and Maternal Mortality 288 4. Commentary and Questions 289 5. Birth Rates 290 6. Commentary and Questions 292 C. Infanticide 292 1. Introduction 292 2. Setting the Stage: Concealment of Pregnancy Statutes 293 3. Commentary and Questions 294 JULIE MILLER, ABANDONED: FOUNDLINGS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY NEW YORK CITY 17-18, 41-42 (2008) 298 4. An Infanticide Trial: The Valpy-Hardy Case 300 a. Introduction 300 b. The Trial 302 c. Commentary and Questions 328 D. Abortion 332 1. The Quickening Rule at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century 332 a. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Isaiah Bangs (1812) 332 b. Commentary and Questions 333 MEDICUS, Facts and Observations on Quickening, 27 MEDICAL & PHYSICAL JOURNAL 441 (June, 1812) 340 THEODRIC ROMEYN BECK, M.D., ELEMENTS OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE 197-218 (1823) 342 2. The Evolution of Abortion Law in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts 354 a. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Luceba Parker (1845) 354

iv b. Commentary and Questions 358 c. Background Information About the Robert Wood Case 362 d. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Wood (1858) 363 e. Commentary and Questions 367 f. Background Information About the David R. Brown Case 368 g. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. David R. Brown (1860) 371 h. Commentary and Questions 378 i. Background to Second Case Against Dr. David R. Brown 382 j. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. David R. Brown (1876) 383 k. Commentary and Questions 389 3. Police Gazette: Wonderful Trial of Caroline Lohman, Alias Restell 390 a. Introduction 390 b. The Police Gazette Report of the Restell Trial 397 c. Commentary and Questions 441 4. Role of the Medical Profession in the Abortion Debate 452 HORATIO R. STORER & FRANKLIN FISKE HEARD, CRIMINAL ABORTION: ITS NATURE, ITS EVIDENCE, AND ITS LAW 52-57, 60-64, 134-135, 144-146 (1868) 455 5. Abortion Data 463 E. Birth Control 465 1. Introduction 465 2. Comstockery 468 a. The Comstock Act 468 b. Anthony Comstock 470 ANTHONY COMSTOCK, TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG (1883) 471 c. United States v. Edward Bliss Foote 475 d. Commentary and Questions 477 3. Decline of Comstockery 479 a. Introduction 479 , FAMILY LIMITATION (1917) 481 b. Commentary and Questions 488 c. Prosecution of Margaret Sanger 493 d. New York v. Sanger 496 e. Commentary and Questions 498 f. The End of Comstockery 499 (1) Mary Ware Dennett 499 MARY WARE DENNETT, THE SEX SIDE OF LIFE (1919) 500 (2) United States v. Dennett 502 (3) Commentary and Questions 508 (4) United States v. One Package 509 (5) Commentary and Questions 513

Chapter 6: Gender, Race and Violence—Nineteenth Century Visions of Wives, Slaves, and Freed Persons A. Introduction 514 B. The Wife/Slave Analogy Revisited 515 1. Newspaper Commentary 515

v W.J.F., Wives and Slaves: A Bone for the Abolitionists to Pick, 17 THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE, AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW 264 (1845) 517 2. Commentary and Questions 526 C. The Law of Violence in Nineteenth Century “Domestic Relations” 527 1. Introduction 527 Laura F. Edwards, Law, Domestic Violence, and the Limits of Patriarchal Authority in the Antebellum South, 65 J. OF SO. HIST. 733 (1999) 528 2. The Criminal Law of Violence in Slavery 530 a. Killing or Battering a Slave 530 (1) State v. Piver (1799) 530 (2) Commentary and Questions 538 (3) State v. Boon 532 (4) Commentary and Questions 538 (5) Judge Thomas Ruffin 539 (6) State v. John Mann 540 (7) Commentary and Questions 543 PAUL D. ESCOTT, SLAVERY REMEMBERED: A RECORD OF TWENTIETH- CENTURY SLAVE NARRATIVES 42-50 (1979) 546 (8) State v. Hoover 551 (9) Commentary and Questions 555 b. A Slave’s Ability to Respond to Violence 556 (1) State v. Caesar 556 (2) Commentary and Questions 572 c. Patrollers and State Violence 574 (1) Tate v. O’Neal 574 (2) Commentary and Questions 575 (3) State v. Isham Hailey 577 (4) Commentary and Questions 579 d. Controlling Free Blacks 579 (1) State v. Atlas Jowers 579 (2) Commentary and Questions 581 (3) Introduction to the Howard Case 582 (4) Doe on demise of Frances Howard v. Sarah Howard, et. al. 583 (5) Commentary and Questions 586 3. The Law of Violence in Marriage 587 a. Divorce and Battery Cases 587 (1) State v. Hussey 588 (2) Commentary and Questions 590 Anne Firor Scott, Women’s Perspective on the Patriarchy in the 1850s, 61 THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 52-64 (1974) 592 (3) Joyner v. Joyner 598 (4) Commentary and Questions 601 (5) State v. Jesse Black 605 (6) Commentary and Questions 606 (7) State v. A. B. Rhodes 607 (8) Commentary and Questions 610

vi (9) State v. Ridley Mabrey 612 (10) Commentary and Questions 613 (11) State v. Richard Oliver 613 (12) Commentary and Questions 614 D. “Jane Crow” to “Jim Crow”: Gender and Race After the Civil War 616 1. Introduction 616 2. The “Ladies Car”: Class, Gender and Race 619 a. Bass v. the & Northwestern Railway Company 619 b. Commentary and Questions 624 c. Introduction to Gray v. Cincinnati Southern Railway Company 628 d. Gray v. Cincinnati Southern R. Co. 632 e. Commentary and Questions 634 f. Introduction to The Sue Case 637 g. The Sue 648 h. Commentary and Questions 651 THEODORE G. BILBO, TAKE YOUR CHOICE: SEPARATION OR MONGRELIZATION (1947) 652 3. Separate But Equal in Operation 654 a. Introduction to Smith v. Chamberlain 654 b. Smith v. Chamberlain 655 c. Commentary and Questions 662 d. Introduction to Plessy v. Ferguson 663 e. Plessy v. Ferguson 665 f. Commentary and Questions 677

Chapter 7: The Temperance Movement—Women’s War on Whiskey and the Founding of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union A. Setting the Stage: The Women’s Crusade of 1873-1874 682 1. Introduction 682 Ruth Bordin, “A Baptism of Power and Liberty”: The Women’s Crusade of 1873-1874, 87 OHIO HIST. 393 (1978) 682 2. Commentary and Questions 687 B. Reactions to the Crusades 694 1. The Suffragists’ Reactions 694 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY & , 3 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE 500-502 (1889) 694 2. Commentary and Questions 696 E. D. STEWART, MEMORIES OF THE CRUSADE 28-38 (1889) 697 3. Liberal Commentary 697 THE WOMEN AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION, THE NATION 135-136 (FEBRUARY 26, 1874) 701 4. Commentary and Questions 704 5. The Temperance Prayer 705 The Prayer 705 6. Commentary and Questions 706 C. Newspaper Reports on the Hillsboro Crusades 708

vii 1. The Palace Drug Store Controversy 708 2. Commentary and Questions 715 3. Constitutional Convention Meets Dio Lewis’ Speaking Tour 718 4. Commentary and Questions 724 5. The Hillsboro Injunction Case 725 6. Commentary and Questions 741 D. The WCTU, Suffrage, and the “Do Everything Movement” 747 1. Suffrage and “Home Protection” 747 FRANCES E. WILLARD, HOME PROTECTION MANUAL 6-12 (1879) 750 2. Commentary and Questions 759 3. The “Do Everything” Agenda of the WCTU 763 , Address Before the Second Biennial Convention of the World’s Christian Temperance Union, and the Twentieth Annual Convention of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union 1-3, 5-7 (1893) 765 4. Commentary and Questions 769 Jane E. Larson, "Even a Worm Will Turn at Last": Rape Reform in Late Nineteenth-Century America, 9 YALE J. L. & HUMAN. 1 (1997) 771

Chapter 8: Women’s Suffrage After the Civil War—Defeat and Disarray A. Setting the Stage: 1866 Congressional Debates on the District of Columbia Voting Rights Bill 785 1. Introduction 785 ADDRESS TO CONGRESS, Adopted by the Eleventh National Woman’s Rights Convention, held in New York City, Thursday, May 10, 1866 788 2. Commentary and Questions 789 3. District of Columbia Franchise Bill Debates 791 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE (EDS.), II HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE: 1861-1876 (1882) 792 4. Commentary and Questions 803 B. The Suffrage Movement Split of 1869 805 1. Introduction 805 Andrea Moore Kerr, White Women’s Rights, Black Men’s Wrong, Free Love, Blackmail, and the Formation of the American Woman Suffrage Association, in MARJORIE SPRUILL WHEELER (ED.), ONE WOMAN, ONE VOTE: REDISCOVERING THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT, 62-78 (1995) 806 2. Commentary and Questions 818 C. Post-Schism Suffrage Politics and the Minor Resolution 820 1. The Minor Resolution 820 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage (eds.), II History of Woman Suffrage: 1861-1876, at 407-410 (1882) 820 2. Commentary and Questions 823 D. Women’s Suffrage in the Courts 824 1. The Spencer & Webster Voting Rights Cases 825 a. Introduction 825 b. Sara S. Spenser v. The Board of Registration 826 c. Commentary and Questions 828

viii 2. Bradwell v. 830 a. Introduction 830 b. Commentary and Questions 834 c. Bradwell’s Appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court 835 d. Commentary and Questions 836 e. Illinois Supreme Court Result 837 f. Commentary and Questions 838 g. Bradwell’s Case in the United States Supreme Court 839 h. v. State of Illinois, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 130 (1872) 842 i. Commentary and Questions 845 3. The Anthony Voting Rights Case 848 a. Introduction 848 b. Commentary and Questions 850 c. Anthony’s Sentencing Hearing 851 d. Commentary and Questions 853 4. The United States Supreme Court and the Minor Resolution: Minor v. Happersett 854 a. Virginia Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162 (1875) 854 b. Commentary and Questions 859 ROSS EVANS PAULSON, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, AND JUSTICE: CIVIL RIGHTS, WOMEN’S RIGHTS, AND THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS (1997) 860 E. Suffrage Reform in Ohio 862 1. Introduction 862 2. The School Voting Legislation of 1894 864 3. State Suffrage Referenda 866 4. The Presidential Elector Voting Legislation of 1917 867 5. Conclusion 870 Address of the President of the United States Delivered in the Senate of the United States September 30, 1918 871

Chapter 9: Protective Labor Legislation at the Turn of the Twentieth Century—Special or Equal Treatment Under the Law A. Introduction 874 B. Massachusetts Protective Labor Legislation 874 1. Regulating the Workday of Children and Women 874 a. 1866 Legislation 878 An Act in relation to the employment of children in manufacturing establishments 878 b. Commentary and Questions 879 c. Continuing Agitation for Hours Legislation 879 Ira Steward, A Reduction of Hours is an Increase in Wages (1865) 880 d. 1874 Act and Later Legislation 883 An Act to regulate the hours of labor in manufacturing establishments 883 e. Commentary and Questions 887 2. Wage Legislation in Massachusetts 888

ix An Act to establish the minimum wage commission and to provide for the determination of minimum wages for women and minors (1912) 890 C. The Early Twentieth Century Debate Over Protective Labor Legislation 892 1. Introduction: The Dorr-Anderson Dialogue 892 Rheta Childe Dorr, Should There be Labor Laws for Women? No, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (September, 1925) 895 Mary Anderson, Should There be Labor Laws for Women? Yes, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (September, 1925) 900 2. Commentary and Questions 909 D. Protective Labor Legislation and the Supreme Court 910 1. Male Worker Hours Legislation: Lochner v. New York 910 a. Structure of Freedom of Contract Litigation 910 b. Commentary and Questions 913 c. Background to Lochner v. New York 914 d. Supreme Court Opinions: Lochner v. New York 915 f. Commentary and Questions 927 GAIL BEDERMAN, MANLINESS AND CIVILIZATION: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF GENDER AND RACE IN THE UNITED STATES, 1880-1917 (1995) 929 2. Women Workers’ Hours Legislation: Muller and Bunting 932 a. Briefs in the Muller Case 932 (1) Muller’s Brief 933 (2) The “Brandeis Brief” for the State of Oregon 935 (3) Brief of Oregon Attorney General 943 b. Commentary and Questions 947 EDWARD H. CLARKE, SEX IN EDUCATION; A FAIR CHANCE FOR GIRLS (1874) 948 , Sex and Education, in JULIA WARD HOWE [ED.], SEX AND EDUCATION. A REPLY TO DR. E. H. CLARKE’S “SEX IN EDUCATION,” (1874) 953 c. Supreme Court Opinions: Muller v. Oregon 954 d. Commentary and Questions 958 Felix Frankfurter, Hours of Labor and Realism in Constitutional Law, 29 Harv. L. Rev. 353, 362-368, 372-373 (1916) 964 e. Supreme Court Opinions: Bunting v. Oregon 968 f. Commentary and Questions 973 3. Wage Laws 975 a. Introduction 975 Joan G. Zimmerman, The Jurisprudence of Equality: The Women’s Minimum Wage, the First Equal Rights Amendment, and Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 1905-1923, 78 J. AM. HIST. 188, 200-201, 207-208 (1991) 976 b. Briefs in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital 980 (1) Brief for Children’s Hospital 980 (2) Brief for Adkins 982 c. Supreme Court Opinions: Adkins v. Children’s Hospital 987 d. Commentary and Questions 1001

x Note (Blanche Crozier), Constitutional Law—Regulation of Conditions of Employment of Women. A Critique of Muller v. Oregon, 13 B. U. L. REV. 276 (1933) 1002 e. Supreme Court Opinions: West Coast Hotel v. Parrish 1009 f. Commentary and Questions 1015 E. Protective Legislation After World War II 1015 1. Introduction 1016 2. Protecting Male Veterans 1019 a. Background to Goesaert v. Cleary 1019 b. Supreme Court Opinions: Goesaert v. Cleary 1023 c. Commentary and Questions 1025 3. Military Service and the Protection Rationale 1026 a. Background to Rostker v. Goldberg 1026 b. Supreme Court Opinions: Rostker v. Goldberg 1027 c. Commentary and Questions 1041 Kenneth L. Karst, The Pursuit of Manhood and the Desegregation of the Armed Forces, 38 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 499 (1991) 1042

Chapter 10: The Legal Uses of History—The Sears Case A. Introduction 1050 B. Equal Employment Opportunity v. Sears Roebuck and Company 1052 1. Summaries of Testimony Offered by Historians 1052 a. Rosalind Rosenberg on Behalf of Sears Roebuck and Company 1052 b. Commentary and Questions 1060 c. Alice Kessler-Harris on Behalf of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 1061 d. Commentary and Questions 1072 2. The Trial Level Decision 1074 a. Opinion of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois: EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. 1074 b. Commentary and Questions 1098 3. The Appellate Level Decision 1100 a. Opinions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit: EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. 1100 b. Commentary and Questions 1108 C. Commentary About the Use of Historians in the Sears Litigation 1110 1. Introduction 1110 2. Commentary in the Media 1111 a. Editorial, Misusing History, THE WASHINGTON POST (June 9, 1986) 1111 b. Samuel G. Freedman, Of History And Politics: Bitter Feminist Debate, THE NEW YORK TIMES B1 (June 6, 1986) 1112 c. Commentary and Questions 1113 d. Jon Wiener, Women’s History on Trial, 267 THE NATION 161 (Sep. 7, 1985) 1115 f. Commentary and Questions 1118 3. Comments by Rosalind Rosenberg and Alice Kessler-Harris 1119

xi a. Rosalind Rosenberg, What Harms Women in the Workplace, NEW YORK TIMES A23 (February 27, 1986) 1119 b. Commentary and Questions 1121 c. Alice Kessler-Harris, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Sears, Roebuck and Company: A Personal Account, 35 RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW 57-59, 72-76 (1986) 1122 d. Commentary and Questions 1126 4. Academic Commentary 1128 a. Eileen Boris, Looking at Women’s Historians Looking at “Difference,” 3 Wis. Women’s L.J. 213, 235-238 (1987) 1128 b. Commentary and Questions 1129 c. Jonathan D. Martin, Historians at the Gate: Accommodating Expert Historical Testimony in Federal Courts, 78 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1518 (2003) 1130 d. Commentary and Questions 1136 D. Concluding Problem 1136 Brief of 281 American Historians as Amici Curiae Supporting Appellees in the Case of Webster, Appellant v. Reproductive Health Services, Appellees 1138

Index

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