Coverture and the Colonial Era

 

Center for Civic Education: Coverture and the Colonial Era 

 

March is Women's History Month! All this month, 60-Second Civics will explain the struggle for equal rights for women and how our Constitution and laws evolved to make our nation a more representative democracy. 

In this episode, A married woman living during the American colonial era would have lived under the legal doctrine called "coverture," where her legal identity was subsumed under that of her husband. William Blackstone wrote, "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law: that is, 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." This was governed by colonial law before independence and state law after independence. It would not change substantially after the Revolution in most states, but divorce and child custody laws would change.

Also watch New York Historical: What is Coverture? (WAMS E01)