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First Generations Women In Colonial America Summary

Decent Essays

It should be no surprise that colonial women were treated differently than women from today’s generation. Colonial women would get beaten up and they would have to act like if nothing ever happened. As Berkin’s states, “[…] John Tillison chained his wife by the leg to a plow in order to keep her from leaving the house, or when a Maine husband kicked his wife and hit her with a club because she refused to feed his pig, they were considered to be exercising their right to discipline subordinates disrespectful of legitimate authority” (31 Berkin). So as you can see colonial women would be abused and their husbands would get away with it.
In Carol Berkin’s “First Generations: Women in Colonial America” she educates her audience by giving historical information of how the colonial women would live their life. There is no doubt that women in the colonial times, were not equal to their husbands. Berkin tells us how life is explained as a married woman, “In its most pristine and extreme interpretation, the law denied married women the right to make judgements regarding their own economic circumstances. It muted their voice in the courts, restricted their accumulation and dispersement of material wealth, and made them less than responsible for their misdeeds or achievements in the public sphere” (14). But also the law made sure the husbands, “[…] protect and provide for wives; wives were required to submit to male authority and to assist their husbands by productive labor and

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