As American as Motherhood and Apple Pie The Founding Mothers Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com

Remember the Ladies

“… I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” Abigail Adams

  Ancient World Middle Ages (400-1500) Reform Period (1500s) Personhood and Identity Relationship to a man (father or husband) Status No natural political/civil role Inferior human being; weak (dangerous) Property ethic (Not exactly a slave; extension of father/husband) Property ethic (softening) Marriage Contract between 2 men Norm: Polygamy Transfer of property Economic relationship; valued as an asset or resource Consent of woman not really considered? Not a civil or religious institution Norm: Monogamy Transfer of property Some degree of consent by woman Minimal religious significance or involvement; no civil involvement Civil/religious institutionalization

Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) Enlightenment (1600-1800) Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) American Revolutionary Era (1730-1783) Something New Importance of the Individual Natural Rights Liberty Fulfillment of the individual Wealth redefined Capital and production rather than property Politicization of “women’s work” What women do has political impact and consequences Challenges Women get their identity from relationship with father/husband Women are not property Women are not an extension of husband Economics as primary basis for marriage Opens the possibility of affection as primary basis for marriage Women have no natural political role What is that political role?

“… I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” Abigail Adams

August 18, 1920 144 years after Abigail asked John to “remember the ladies” 19th Amendment to the US Constitution The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Revolutionary Experience Women? Revolutionary Experience Enlightenment Tradition Naturally inferior – weak and dangerous Not a slave – but not a separate person No property rights No natural political ability/role Natural rights Not property, although not equal to men Women have a political role/responsibility within the “domestic sphere.”

Remember the Ladies All MEN are created equal Women, children and the landless has few rights White European, land owners Free holders No OFFICIAL “Voice for Women”? Reluctant Revolutionaries? Too radical for the founders? Adams: “If we give in …

Default Position: Coverture (Couverture) Sir William Blackstone (1723 -1780) Commentaries on the Laws of England (1769) Treatise on the common law of England Pre-Revolutionary source of common law by United States courts US Supreme Court relies on Blackstone‘ s work Historical discussion that goes back to Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary America For example, the intent of the Framers of the Constitution

Coverture (Couverture) Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England The Rights of Persons The Rights of Things Of Private Wrongs Of Public Wrongs English social structure; relationship of people to one another: King, aristocracy, commoners Husbands and wives Masters and servants (employers and employees) Guardians and wards Property rights Torts and various methods of trial that existed at civil law Jurisdictions of the several courts, from the lowest to the highest. Criminal law and criminal justice system

Coverture (Couverture) The husband and wife are one person in law The “very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing” Wife: called England’s law-French a feme-covert; “Said to be covert-baron, or under the protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord; and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture.”

Coverture (Couverture) “Upon this principle, of a union of person in husband and wife, depend almost all the legal rights, duties, and disabilities, that either of them acquire by the marriage.” A man cannot grant any thing to his wife, or enter into covenant with her: for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence; To covenant (contract) with her would be only to covenant with himself All compacts made between husband and wife, when single are voided by the intermarriage.

Two Classes of Women Feme Sole Feme Covert Single Woman Femme seule Independent legal personality Right own property Right to enter into contracts in her own name Married Woman Femme coverte Independent legal personality was suspended during marriage Subsumed by that of her husband

Feme Covert Woman’s independent legal personality was suspected during marriage Subsumed by that of her husband Married women did not have the legal capacity to Enter a contract Sue Own personal property Receive wages Carry on a business Manager her real property or receive rents/profits from it Married women could not sue their husbands Effectively gave married men immunity from prosecution for violent crimes committed against their wives.

Coverture (Couverture) England The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 The Married Women's Property Act 1882

Coverture (Couverture) United States 1809: Connecticut Allowed a married woman to write a will Impact on property and contracts? Beginning in late 1830s Married Women’s Property Acts: 3 phases Allowed married women to own property Allowed married women to keep their own income Allowed married women to engage in business

Early Changes in Property Rights 1821 ME Allowed to own and manage property in their own name during incapacity of spouse 1835 AR Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name MA TN

Early Changes in Property Rights Panic of 1837 1839: Mississippi Woman could own property in her own right but could not manage it or sell it without husband’s consent. Safe from husband’s debt collector’s Martin van Buren

Early Changes in Property Rights 1840: Texas 1843: Maryland 1844: Michigan 1845: New York and Pennsylvania 1846: Arkansas 1846-1848: Ohio, Indiana, Iowa 1849: Tennessee 1852/1872: New Jersey 1855: Massachusetts 1860: 14/34 States 1865: 29/34 States Civil Rights Act of 1866 Rights of African-Americans Opponents: change the status of married women

Early Changes to Property Rights 1849: California Constitution Spanish civil law rather than English common law Community Property 1860: 14/34 States 1865: 29/34 States Civil Rights Act of 1866 Rights of African-Americans Opponents: change the status of married women

Coverture (Couverture) 1867: Illinois Supreme Court (Cole v Van Riper) "It is simply impossible that a married woman should be able to control and enjoy her property as if she were sole, without practically leaving her at liberty to annul the marriage.“

Coverture (Couverture) 1869: Harriet Beecher Stowe “The position of a married woman … is, in many respects, similar to that of the negro slave. She can make no contract and hold no property; whatever she inherits or earns becomes at the moment property of her husband… Though he acquired a fortune through her, of though she earned a fortune through her talents, he is the sole master of it, and she cannot draw a penny…. In the English common law a married woman is nothing at all. She passes out of legal existence.”

Coverture (Couverture) 1972 Two US court cases allowed a wife accused in criminal court to offer as a legal defense that she was obeying her husband's orders.

Remember the Ladies Husbands Fathers Women Smart enough to give their wives room to act Fathers Enlightened enough to educate their daughters Women Bold enough to speak/act for themselves

“Smart” Husbands: Margaret Hardenbroek (c. 1635–1691) “She-Merchant” Circa 1635: born in the Netherlands 1659: Immigrated to New Amsterdam 1659-1661: Pieter de Vries 1663-1691: Frederick Philipsen

“Smart” Husbands: Ann Smith (1696-1763) Publisher/Printer 1696: Born in Boston 1723: married James Franklin (1697-1735) 1721-1726: New-England Courant Silas Dogood 1727: Newport, Rhode Island 1727-1734: Rhode-Island Almanack (Poor Robin) 1730-1731: Colony of Rhode Island 1732-1733: Rhode Island Gazette

“Smart” Husbands: Ann Smith (1696-1763) Publisher/Printer 1735: James Franklin died “Widow Franklin” 1736: General Assembly of Rhode Island Official printer Law records, legal forms, election ballot, currency Controversy 1737-1741: Revived Rhode-Island Almanack 1741: Began selling Poor Richard’s Almanack

“Smart” Husbands: Ann Smith (1696-1763) Publisher/Printer 1748: “Ann and James Franklin” 1745: Acts and Laws of Rhode Island (500 copies) 1758: Newport Mercury Newport Daily “First female editor” 1762: “Franklin & Hall Samuel Hall (son-in-law)

“Smart” Husbands: Ann Smith (1696-1763) Publisher/Printer 1763: a woman whose “economy and industry … supported herself and her family, and brought up her children in a genteel manner.” The woman who owned the press on which Benjamin Franklin learned to set type. 1986: one of the first inductees and first woman inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame at the University of Rhode Island

“Smart” Husbands: Deborah Reed (1708-1774)

Enlightened Fathers: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) Saint Peter's Episcopal Churchyard Philadelphia Erected By The Eliza Lucas Chapter, Colonial Daughters Of The 17th Century

Enlightened Fathers: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) 1722: Born in Antigua, West Indies Oldest of four (2 brothers and a sister) Cabbage Tree, one family's three sugar plantations 200 slaves All 4 children sent to England for education 1738: South Carolina 3 plantations Chief one: Wappoo Creek outside of Charleston

Enlightened Fathers: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) 1739: War with Spain Lieutenant Governor of Antiqua 1740: War of Austrian Succession

Enlightened Fathers: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) Plantations: rice Experiments Lumber/Oak Ginger, cotton, alfalfa, silk Indigo 1744: successful crop 1745-1746: 5,000 pounds 1748: 130,000 pounds 1776: 1/3 of total exports from SC

Enlightened Fathers: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) 1744: Marriage to Charles Pinckney 1733: attorney general of South Carolina Speaker of the assembly in 1736, 1738 and 1740, Chief justice South Carolina in 1752–1753 Agent for South Carolina in England in 1753–1758.

Enlightened Fathers: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) 1753 – Eliza presented the Princess of Wales with a dress made of silk produced on the Pinckney plantations. 1793 - President George Washington Served as a pallbearer at her funeral 1989 - First woman to be inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame.

Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) Born: Weymouth, MA Parents Rev. William Smith Liberal Congregationalist Elizabeth Quincy

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) 1764 Marriage to John Adams Third cousins John: 29 Abigail: 20 Letters Circuit Judge Continental Congresses (1774 – 1789)

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) Abigail Adams Adams’ farm and law practice Scandalous! Managed investments without John’s approval Bond speculator 1785: “this money which I call mine”

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) Abigail Adams Mercy Warren Catherine Macaulay

Catherine Macaulay (1731 –1791) Born: Catherine Sawbridge in Kent, England atharine Graham "a thoughtless girl till she was twenty, at which time she contracted a taste for books and knowledge by reading an odd volume of some history, which she picked up in a window of her father's house". Letter from Macaulay to Benjamin Rush

Catherine Macaulay (1731 –1791) Born: Catherine Sawbridge Kent, England 1760: married George Macaulay 1778 William Graham She was 47; he was 21

Catherine Macaulay (1731 –1791) "a thoughtless girl till she was twenty, at which time she contracted a taste for books and knowledge by reading an odd volume of some history, which she picked up in a window of her father's house". Letter from Macaulay to Benjamin Rush

Catherine Macaulay (1731 –1791) The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line. 8 volumes written between 1763 and 1783 British history: Constant struggle for virtue and liberty not yet achieved Win back rights crushed by “Norman yoke” Critically acclaimed, financially successful and politically influential in her own period. Played a significant role in the formation of revolutionary ideology

Catherine Macaulay (1731 –1791) Letters on Education with Observations on Religions and Metaphysical Subjects (1790) Apparent weakness of women was due to their “mis-education” Mary Wollstonecraft British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)

Revolutionary Women

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) Education Regretted own lack for formal education Women should educate themselves and be recognized for their intellectual capabilities Liberty Slavery was evil and threat to American democracy Women should not be subject to laws they did not have a say in making

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) Abigail Adams Mercy Warren Catherine Macaulay

Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814) Propagandist for the Revolution Correspondence Plays Pamphlets Poetry

Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814) Correspondence Abigail Adams Catherine Macaulay Martha Washington Hannah Winthrop John Adams Samuel Adams John Hancock Patrick Henry Thomas Jefferson George Washington

Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814) Plays 1772: The Adulateur Directed against MA governor, Thomas Hutchinson Foretold the Revolution 1773: The Defeat Anti-Hutchinson 1775: The Group Satire re: abrogation of MA charter of rights 1776: The Blockheads 1779: The Motley Assembly

Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814) Post Revolutionary Writings 1788: Observations on the New Constitution Opposed ratification 1790: Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous The Sack of Rome and The Ladies of Castille Liberty Social and moral values needed for the new republic 1805: History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution Jefferson Adams

Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814) Women Advanced rights/education “Domestic sphere” Statue dedicated to Warren. Erected July 4, 2001 in Barnstable, MA