Women & The Colonial Era

1. Women & The Colonial Era

2. Indentured Servants • Debtors prisons, Labor Contracts • Virginia Company • Labor Conditions & Punishment: • The female servants who became pregnant during their term of servitude were ordered on average to serve 240 extra days and receive 12 lashes at the public whipping post • Given extra time for pregnancy, menstruation • 1645 “Susan C” sent to house of corrections for hard labor, coarse diet with daily and weekly physical “corrections” for disobeying orders • 1756 Elizabeth Sprigs worked cleaning horse stalls given corn & salt to eat

3. In the course of the seventeenth century, from 120,000 to 150,000 immigrants landed in the Chesapeake region, and three quarters of these people came as indentured servants

4. Gender ratio • Men often bought indentured women explicitly to be their wives • Women also had shorter life spans in the colonies than women in England, and shorter life spans than their male counterparts within the colonies They were subject to more danger than men, because they had to worry about sexual predators, • Those who survived the ordeal, however, often found their lives improved

5. Sarah Hickman • In April 1642, Sarah Hickman came before the court claiming that the merchant who bound her promised her a two-year contract. • After arrival Mr. William Burdett purchased her contract, he bound her for four years. • In 1642, she brought witnesses to the court to testify to her contract with the merchant, • In 1644, William Burdett’s inventory includes Sarah Hickman’s service for one more year valued at 700 pounds of tobacco.

6. The Mayflower • 18 married women came on the Mayflower. • By the following Spring only four were still alive

7. English Common Law & Women's Rights • Femme Covert • Unmarried mothers faced criminal charges • Polly Baker, Boston prosecuted for having her 5th consecutive child our of wedlock • In 1976, Del Martin, a coordinator of the N.O.W. Task Force on Battered Women Our law, based upon the old English common-law doctrines, explicitly permitted wife-beating for correctional purposes. However, certain restrictions did exist... For instance, the common-law doctrine had been modified to allow the husband "the right to whip his wife, provided that he used a switch no bigger than his thumb" -- a rule of thumb, so to speak.

8. Anne Hutchinsen

9. Anne Hutchinson • Defied church leaders in the early years of the Massachusetts Bay colony by insisting that she and ordinary people could read and interpret the Bible for themselves • Very controversial! • Held meetings with up to 60+ individuals and criticized local ministers. • Governor John Winthrop concerns • Put on trail twice by both the church and government • Banished by the colony and followed to Rhode Island by 35 families

10. Margaret Brent

11. Margaret Brent January 21, 1648, Margaret Brent appeared before the assembly and requested two votes. She asked for one for herself as a landowner and one as Lord Baltimore's attorney. (power of attorney) The first female in the New World to request the right to vote.  One of 13 children never married despite 6/1 ratio

12. arrived in St. Mary's City on November 22, 1638 from a wealthy English family migrated to escape the inherent constraints of her life in England. • Given land title by Lord Baltimore about 2000 acres with her sister. Managed brothers estates. • Ten years after her arrival, Margaret Brent was prominent as a businesswoman and landowner. • Governor Leonard Calvert died in 1647 from his deathbed, exhorting her to "Take all and pay all," he appointed Margaret Brent his executor, a testimony to his faith in her abilities.