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Coverture the Language of Coverture

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Resource 1: Coverture The Language of Coverture overture was a legal figures, and had few opportunities . By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the principle imported Most young women married, to the American and most widows remarried . very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the colonies as part of CEnglish common law . Like other Ironically, William Blackstone marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the common laws, it was based on committed coverture to court decisions and customs that the written record during developed slowly over time, and the Enlightenment, just as husband; under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every were unwritten for centuries . In philosophers developed the the 1760s, William Blackstone revolutionary concept of natural thing; and is . under the protection and influence of her husband, collected and published them rights—universal rights that for the first time in his four- do not have to be granted by a her baron, or lord; and her condition during her marriage is called her volume Commentaries on the governing body . Enlightenment Laws of England. A judge and ideas inspired the rebellion coverture . Upon this principle, of an union of person in husband and legal scholar, Blackstone did not brewing in the colonies . Abigail create the law of coverture, but Adams saw an opportunity in wife, depend almost all the legal rights, duties, and disabilities, that either when he committed it to paper, the language of natural rights, he made it real and concrete in and wrote to her husband, John of them acquire by the marriage . [E]ven the disabilities which the a way it had not been before . Adams, in March 1776: “In the new Code of Laws which I The word “coverture” came from suppose it will be necessary for wife lies under, are for the most part intended for her protection and the French term for “covered ”. you to make I desire you would A married woman, according Remember the Ladies, and be benefit . So great a favourite is the female sex of the laws of England . to the law, was included in (or more generous and favorable to covered by) her husband’s legal them than your ancestors . Do identity; she did not exist legally not put such unlimited power apart from him . Married women into the hands of the Husbands . could not make a will or own Remember all Men would be property . They had no rights tyrants if they could ”. She was not to wages they earned, and lost writing generally about women’s control of anything they owned rights, or specifically about the before marriage . If a husband right to vote . She was asking chose to send his child away as an for relief from coverture . John apprentice, his wife had no say in responded, “I cannot but laugh ”. the matter . Unmarried women, including widows, had more legal After the Revolution, the United Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First: Chapter the Fifteenth: Of Husband and Wife . 4 vols . Oxford: Printed at the © Copyright 2017 New-York Historical Society Historical © Copyright 2017 New-York rights, but they were seen as sad States adopted the common Clarendon Press, 1765–1769 . Saving Washington: The New Republic and Early Reformers, 1790–1860 Unknown artist, Sir Resource 1: William Blackstone, ca . 1755 . Oil on canvas . continued National Portrait Gallery, Coverture London, Primary Collection, 388 . C . Schessele, Mrs. John Adams (Abigail Smith), ca . 1775 . Engraving . New-York Historical Society Library, PR 52 . law system that the colonies had then lived under for more Discussion Questions than a century . The ✮ Under coverture, what is U .S . Constitution and the legal status of a married Bill of Rights used woman? much of the common law language, and specifically With this or similar language, seemed like hard truths: women to work anyway . Their husbands, ✮ Sir William Blackstone, when incorporated bedrock legal some of the ancient laws were were dependent, delicate, and however, controlled their wages . considering the coverture laws, principles, like the right to trial by filtered out—those that related dim-witted, while men were (Attitudes that developed from states that the “disabilities” that jury . Individual states also adopted to the king, for example . Others steady, tough, and rational . The coverture were reinforced, and women suffer under coverture are in fact to their benefit . English common law, often by were soon changed or dropped by cleverest women and the gentlest sometimes challenged, by religious What are these “disabilities”? passing “reception statutes ”. elected legislatures . But coverture, men were all painted with this teaching . For more, see the life What do you think of his Jarena Lee Resource 12. Virginia’s 1776 law was typical: which dated to the middle ages, broad brush . The law affected story of and ) assessment? “The common law of England, was allowed to stand . Impractical unmarried women as well, who insofar as it is not repugnant as it was in the new nation, it were considered “covered” by their Coverture affected the lives to the principles of the Bill of was not “repugnant” because fathers before marriage . Most girls of all American women . It has Sources: Catherine Allgor, “Coverture – The Rights and Constitution of this none of the founding documents received little or no education, been diminished over time, but Word You Probably Don’t Know but Should,” Commonwealth, shall continue addressed the rights of women . and most women lacked the vestiges of it remain even today . National Women’s History Museum, https://www . nwhm .org/blog/coverture-the-word-you-probably- in full force within the same, and preparation and confidence to Only a constitutional amendment don%E2%80%99t-know-but-should/ (accessed be the rule of decision, except as Casting a shadow well beyond hold a job or pursue a profession . would abolish coverture entirely . by M . Waters, 10-15-2016); Linda K . Kerber, No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the altered by the General Assembly ”. married women’s legal rights, Poor women, white or black, Obligations of Citizenship (New York: Hill and Wang, © Copyright 2017 New-York Historical Society Historical © Copyright 2017 New-York coverture created attitudes that also lacked skills, but they had 1998) . Saving Washington: The New Republic and Early Reformers, 1790–1860.
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