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| Genre/Form: | History |
|---|---|
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Kirsten Sword |
| ISBN: | 9780226757483 022675748X |
| OCLC Number: | 1253364258 |
| Description: | 408 p. |
| Contents: | Introduction: "If I am your Wife, I am not your Slave" The Political Uses of Ancient Patriarchy Divorce, Jurisdiction, and the Location of Law Debt and the Paradox of Masculine Possessory Rights in the Age of Revolutions 1. The Trials of Christopher and Elizabeth Lawson: An Introduction to Post-Reformation Debates about Marriage The Puritan Context of the Lawson Marriage Arguments for Separation and Divorce Weighing the Charges: Credibility, Economic Misconduct, Sexual Crime, Racial Boundaries, and SlanderLaw's Irresolution 2. Submit or Starve: Manby v. Scott and the Making of a Precedent Dynastic Marriage and Family Politics Divorce in Interregnum EnglandManby v. Scott and the Domestication of Politics Making a Precedent 3. The Runaway Press Runaway Slaves and Servants and the Development of Colonial Labor Systems Wayward Wives, Colonial Law, and a Shift in Practice The Rise of the Press 4. Marriage, Slavery, and Anglo-Imperial Jurisdictional Politics Disorder in the Legal System: Common Law, Equity, and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Colonial Household Conflicts, Local Law, and the Shadow of Imperial Norms in the 1720s Ancient Patriarchy and the Invention of "Possessory Rights" Repercussions of Imperial Intervention in Marriage Law The Rise of Blackstone The Echo Chamber of the 1760s 5. A Matter of Credit: Husbands' Claims "Lest she should run me in debt": Credibility and Masculine Vulnerability "Behaved in a very unbecoming manner . . . and has eloped from me": Implied Sexual Scandal "Some debates that have subsisted between us": Domestic Violence "Will not be persuaded, either by me or her best friends, to return": Preempting the Law "To her usual place of abode, and to her duty": Husbands versus Communities 6. "In Justice to my Character": Wives' Replies A Change in Values or a Change in Venue? Patterns over Time and Place Ann Wood's Advertisement "Endanger my life by dwelling with him": Ann Wood's Plea "On the Providence of God": Prayers and Curses "The few remaining days of my disconsolate life": Sentimental Dependence Authorship, Agency, and Remedy 7. Wives Not Slaves Liberty versus Loyalty: Marriage as Metaphor "If I am your Wife, I am not your Slave" "The Privilege of my Negroe Wench" "Her service & conjugal comfort . . . which he had a right to have" "We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems" 8. Rethinking the Revolutionary Road to Divorce Divorce and the Jurisdictional and Personal Politics of Revolution Divorce and Emancipation: A Useful False Equivalence Divorce as a Woman's Remedy: Revolutionary Expectations and the "First Families" of the United States "Down the Stream of Time Unnoticed": Family Secrets, Family Stories, and Legal Change Epilogue: "The Rigour of the Old Rule" Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Legal EducationManby v. Scott in the Nineteenth Century Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Source Notes Notes Index |
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"Wives not Slaves is a must-read for anyone interested in the interplay between popular culture and law. Readers will appreciate both the narrative power of its case studies and the elegance of its arguments. This powerful book not only deconstructs the feminist analogy of marriage as slavery, it reassesses the notion of expanding equality in the age of revolution. Better yet, it is filled with thought-provoking implications for our own age." * Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University * "Sword unsilences the past, recovering the cacophonous voices of all the ordinary wives and husbands who put their domestic unions on trial in the pages of early American newspapers. A keenly argued study of the making and breaking of colonial marriages in the court of public opinion, Wives Not Slaves explains how marital practices developed in dialogue with the elaboration of other species of household dependence even as it eviscerates the false equivalence between divorce and emancipation." * Richard Bell, University of Maryland * "Sword's decades of hard work pay off with a clear, intriguing, and articulate discussion of marriage law as it developed in the American colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. . . . Sword has found a creative, intricate, and refreshing way to approach the history of marriage law and colonial life . . . The timely nature of Sword's publication in the era of #metoo and #blacklivesmatter allows the author to engage in historical conversations, the legacies of which are still felt today. Sword's work engages with colonial, American, feminist, slave, and legal histories as well as conversations in anthropology, sociology, and government. . . . Through the use of enticing prose, seductive narratives, and provocative peculiarities, Wives Not Slaves will undoubtedly find its place among scholars, students, and citizen historians for years to come." * H-Net * "Highly recommended. . . A beautifully written, strongly argued narrative that will transform how readers think about the evolution of women's rights in the colonial US. " * Choice * "Sword reconstructs the stories of wives who fled their husbands between the mid-seventeenth and early nineteenth century US, comparing their plight with that of other runaway dependents. She explores the links between local justice, the emerging press, and transatlantic political debates about marriage, slavery, and imperial power." * Law & Social Inquiry * "This excellent, fine-grained study connects legal regimes to patriarchy's quotidian preservation. . . . [Sword's] detailed analysis historicizes the workings of patriarchy and women's defiance in ways that feminist theory and other disciplinary perspectives may overlook." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History * Read more...
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Similar Items
Related Subjects:(18)
- Marriage law -- United States -- History.
- Equality before the law -- United States -- History.
- Equality -- United States -- History.
- Sex role -- United States -- History.
- Sex discrimination -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History.
- Women's rights -- United States -- History.
- Patriarchy -- United States -- History.
- Male domination (Social structure) -- United States -- History.
- LAW / General.
- Equality.
- Equality before the law.
- Male domination (Social structure)
- Marriage law.
- Patriarchy.
- Sex discrimination -- Law and legislation.
- Sex role.
- Women's rights.
- United States.
