Discussion 5: Marriage and the American Revolution I
Please sit in the following groups:
||Newspapers / Adams
Imagine you are the lawyer of one of the unhappily married persons who appear in these newspaper ads, or of Peter Sanford or his wife. What advice would give this person about their legal options? Would this person's “friends” (meaning kin and social network) give the same or different advice? Be sure to specify whom you’ve chosen as your client, and to base your advice on the legal rules found in the William Blackstone and Thomas Jefferson readings. What objections might advocates of this person's spouse raise if the case went to court?
- Usual: Identify who/what/when/where/why for your sources.
- If Kathleen Brown or Laurel Ulrich were to expand her book to include this week’s primary source readings, what would they do with them?
- Do your read your source(s) as telling story about change? If so, what changed and when? What doesn't change?
- Come up with specific evidence from the readings to explain the expectations the following people might have about marriage: Why would they want to marry? Why did or didn’t they choose to marry?
- Sarah – slave of Sarah Slaughter
- Eunice Davis
- Eliza Wharton
- Samuel Huggins
- Peter Sanford
Your Questions (How might you answer these historically? / What do the texts say?):
- Power v. Choice in marriage / Change v. no change
- The Coquette = women powerless, looked down on for marrying for love. John Adams = Women hold true authority through love. How did women in the late 1700's lose power within their marriages and why did this happen?
- Eliza behaved differently than most women of that era. She was much more concerned with self-expression than serving as a wife.
- Why do wives leave their husbands? If they have a reason to leave the relationship do the men use the newspaper articles cutting of financial ties as revenge?
- A. Adams "aggressive": What factors contributed to the change of women having a take charge approach concerning these topics? Did all women begin to speak openly like this or just some (to their husbands)? How public were these new ideas and thoughts?
- I think it is interesting how much discrepancy there was between the public, legal idea of marriage and the private reality. John and Abigail Adam's letters prove that not all wives were submissive and not all husbands were "masters." In addition, Jefferson's legal notes seem to point to a desire for more available divorce. I found his question, its "permitted to cure disorders of the body, why not this greatest (unhappy marriage) of the mind? " I also found his views on women's rights expressed on page 219 to be completely against the patriarchal inclinations of elities like Blackstone. So, what does this say about later American views on marriage? While women had no real civil rights at a national level, it would seem that they exercised some power in their individual households. Does this mean that there really is no "traditional" marriage?
- “Good government in families creates domestic happiness, and tends to promote the prosperity of the state.” This to me explained why marriage has been such a stable or long lasting union thought out the years. What does this statement mean to you? Is the reason marriage has been so successful or long lasting, because or for the of government or economic stability?
- What is the book of today to scare women in to marrying? Is Eliza Wharton’s story much different from today?
- was surprised to see that he suggested British Legislature adopt the same alteration as the New-States and strike the word obey from the marriage ceremony.
- Abigail Adams' letters along with the other primary sources show that women were clearly subordinate to their husbands and they seemed to dislike their marriages in many ways that are similar to today. I question as to whether some of these primary sources were written to try to sway women of the time away from marriage.
- Also, one of the articles articulated that women “renounce” some rights when entering a marriage. If this was true in society, what would the driving force for a woman to get married be? And in marriages, is this why marriages seem more unstable at this time?
- from week 4
- as it common for people during this time to actually consider the daughter's feelings when deciding her husband? If a daughter were to speak up, would the parents even listen or care? Did the father choose who the husband would be or did the mother also have any sort of say in the matter?