Status of Women in England/Europe, 1550-1650

Coverture: in traditional English common law, coverture refers to the legal status of women. Upon marriage, a woman’s legal status would be subsumed by her husband, thus giving her the legal title of feme covert.

An unmarried adult women carried legal status of feme sole. She generally had the right to enter into legal contracts and own property, but all of that would be absorbed by husband once she got married.

Puritanism in New England, 1600-1750• English Protestants who

were dissatisfied with the English Reformation; settled in New England between 1620-1650.

• Believed in personal interpretation of the Bible; humankind exists solely for God.

• Insisted on moral purity at every level; conformity > individuality

• The “Elect” vs. “Damned”

English women in the Colonies

Northern Colonies • Legal rights and status – no

voting rights, although full church members enjoyed full social status.

• Divorce allowed in specific cases, since marriage seen as a civil contract rather than a religious one, but remarriage difficult.

• Women often disproportionally punished for crimes like adultery or fornication.

Southern Colonies• Improved status compared

to England? Kind of• Legal rights and status – no

voting rights, but often women yielded considerable social power

• Women’s domestic work determined by a women’s race and class.

A New England woman’s household duties may have included:

• Milking/tending to livestock• Gardening/tending to smaller crops (turnips, potatoes, herbs, etc.)• Building and regulating fires• Baking bread• Making butter and cheese• Brewing beer/cider• Spinning (wool yarn)• Sewing/altering clothing (most children’s clothing gender-neutral)• Laundry (frequency depended on age of children)• Slaughtering/disemboweling animals and preserving the meat• Preparing all food (most women adept at cooking, frying, roasting, boiling, and baking)• Sweeping/tidying• Emptying household chamber pots• Other errands outside the home

“According to the Condition of the Mother” law (1662), p 102

“Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother. WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother, And that if any christian shall committ fornication with a negro man or woman, hee or shee offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.”

Salem Witch Trials, 1692-1693• Incidents occurred mostly

in Salem Village (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts)

• Recent conflict between New France, their Native American allies, and New England strained resources and exacerbated existing social tension

• Nineteen people are hanged, one is pressed to death, and four others die in prison.

Map of Salem Village, c. 1700

Brief Timeline of Events in Salem

• January 1692 – Reverend Parris’ daughter and niece begin experiencing “fits”

• February 1692 – the girls name first three “witches”: Tituba (Parris’ Caribbean slave), Sarah Good (local beggar), and Sarah Osborne (elderly woman)– Tituba confesses, says that there are other witches

Brief Timeline of Events in Salem (cont.)

• May 1692 – First person is hanged for witchcraft. Days after this execution, minster Cotton Mather asks Special Court not to admit “spectral evidence”

• July-September 1692 – eighteen more people are sentenced and hanged.

• October 1692 – Governor Phipps’ wife accused of witchcraft; executions halted

• May 1693- remaining accused all pardoned