In the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, a vast majority of white women spent their time performing many laborious tasks around and in their rural homes such as sewing, spinning animal husbandry, preserving food, cleaning, cooking and raising children (Vann-Woodward, 1981). The most dangerous task which they performed was that of bearing children. Those women, on average gave birth to between five and eight children where most times had additional pregnancies in between that ended in miscarriages. In an estimate, one woman out of eight lost her life during childbirth while others lived through the experience only to witness their infants die after birth or later in life.
In this era, women did not have any voice in politics which was controlled by men, but some scraped under those restriction placed on them. They formed a movement which advocated for the improvement of women’s education to give them more means to support themselves. In this essay, the history of American women in the 19 th century based on the C. Vann Woodward’s book, “Mary Chestnut’s Civil War.” This book accounts about the life of Mary Boykin Chestnut, who lived between 1823 to 1886, indicating how her life was affected by the position women had in the society at that time. Mary was brought up in a prominent family that participated in the southern politics and had ties with president Washington. Before his retirement from politics, Mary’s father had risen to a governor then to a senator and was one the politicians who were advocating for the end of slavery. Mary received the best education she could get which inspired her into writing which she is well remembered for. Mary was married to James Chestnut at the age of sixteen who was then an inspiring politician who was from the most prominent and influential family in the south. He was the son colonel James Chestnut senior who owned vast estates in the region.
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Mary’s early life was a happy and jovial life where she was not restricted to doing what she liked and had support from all members of her family. According to Vann Woodward (1981), Mary’s life drastically changed after getting married and her jovial life was almost cut off due to the restriction this marriage put on her. The Chestnuts especially James senior were aristocrats who believed women should only engage in mere jobs, and they should be subjective to their husbands.
They were various laws that governed the responsibilities of women such as the marriage laws and those that did not allow the participation of women into politics. In this book, Mary complains about these laws that prohibited her from states matters especially during the Civil War. She says that if allowed, her contribution would have been of great benefit in coordinating the war. Mary Chestnut explains that women in that era were not independent beings but they were subjects to their husbands. She continues on by describing women as slaves, she said that there was no difference between women and slaves because they were their husbands’ slaves and their opinions didn’t count.
During this era, marriage was not only understood as a just personal commitment between two people but as the foundation of political and social order. The civic status of a man was derived by him becoming a father, and by law, he was the head of the household who represented both his wife and children in public. This law put women’s right into two main categories which include the status of single women and married ones.
Status of Single Women
The law gave the legal right for unmarried women including windows to support themselves by choosing any kind of occupation as long as it did not require a college degree or a license, and also, they had the right to live where they pleased. Single women were allowed by the law to accumulate personal property, which comprised of everything that could be moved such as stocks and bonds, cash, livestock, and slaves (Vann-Woodward, 1981). They were also allowed to buy and sell real estate, and could also enter into contracts. As long as these women remained unmarried, they could write wills, act as executors of estates, serve as guardians, and could sue or be sued. The changes in marriage laws during this period brought some significant changes in women’s rights to inheritance. The law abolished inheritance customs such as primogeniture and the tradition of double shares of a parent’s estate which favored the eldest son in the family. This law, however, did not protect Mary Chestnut after the demise of her husband. Since she had no children of her own, James senior wills indicated that the next male in the family lineage should inherit this property.
Despite all these laws, the life of the single women was not that easy. For example, if a single woman luckily was able to be independent financially, people still looked upon her as an oddity, and she was called a spinster (Vann-Woodward, 1981). For most of them to avoid such treatment they had to depend upon the males in their families where they spent most of their lives moving from one relative’s home to another because they never felt welcomed anywhere. For example, the unmarried daughters of James senior had to live in the estate where they could be protected by the males in the family.
Status of Married Women
The legal status of women changed dramatically after marriage where any independence she had on legal, political or economic ceased from existence. The legal doctrine of coverture indicated that upon marriage, a wife became a feme convert where her husband identity absorbed hers, and he was symbolized by her talking his name as her last name replacing it with that of her father or guardian (Vann-Woodward, 1981). Due to these changes, a wife could not sign a legally binding contract, acquire property or income, vote or bring suit in court in her own name. According to Vann Woodward (1981), Mary’s life changed a lot after the marriage because she was now restricted to do a lot of things she used to do before. This led occasional depressions that greatly affected her health.
Despite this law depriving the wife of all her rights, it had some clause that protected the wife from the worst effects of coverture. The law stated that a wife had the right to be treated or kept in a manner that reflected the social status of the husband. The law dictated that a married woman could sue and win support from the courts if her husband refused to provide for her appropriately depending on the ability of the husband to do so. The woman was permitted by law to run up charges at local taverns and stores while she was waiting for the court’s judgment, and her husband was supposed to pay for them. This rule was called the doctrine of necessities, and the judges constantly applied it to prevent men from neglecting their wives (Vann-Woodward, 1981).
Despite relinquishing all her rights to her husband, the married women still had the right to real property that they had inherited. In the early national period, most wealth was constituted of lands and buildings. This law prohibited the husband to sell or mortgage real property his wife brought to their marriage without consulting her first (O'neill, 2017). He was allowed to use it, but he could not take it because generally, the wife inherited the real estate from her father and it was meant to stay in the family, and then descend it to her children.
The wife also had a say and rights to the real property brought by her husband to the marriage those purchased afterward. The law prohibited the husband to mortgage or sell lands or building without a statement that has been signed by her wife to signify that she was consulted before the husband making this decision, and this statement was recorded with the deed (O'neill, 2017). The courts ensured that the conveyance was signed by the wife not because she was pressured by her husband but out of her own will. The last right that in the marriage law that was important especially, to married women was the dower. The dower was created to provide the wife with support during her widowhood. The rule stated that she was supposed to have one half of a life estate of the husband’s real property if they were no children and got one-third of it in there were children. According to this rule, a life estate did not mean that she actually owns the property, but it meant that wife was supposed to be provided as of how her husband would have done for her if he lived. Therefore, under the legal system, the law recognized the wife’s dependency position within the family thus protecting her losing her access to her husband’s property after his demise.
After the end of the Civil War, James junior returned into politics leaving Mary to manage their failing estates almost all alone. Mary took full control of the estates’ management, and even though they rose slowly, she was able to prevent them from total collapse. After her husband’s demise, the lawyers for her of the property that were owned by James senior by using the old’s man wills, which stated that his empire should only be inherited by the next male in the lineage but not by a woman (Van Woodward, 1981). At the end of all struggles, Mary was only left with Sarsfield estate which was bought by her husband. Mary was encouraged by all the challenges she faced in her lifetime to write journals that advocated for more participation of women in the society.
The Religious control of Women in Puritan Society
One society that clearly indicates early roles of the American women is the Puritans society which illustrates how women were treated in most places in the 17 th century. Puritans refer to a group of English Reformed Protestants who wanted to reform the Church of England from all the practices of the Roman Catholic (O'neill, 2017). The Puritans believed in the supernatural, and they took every event in the colonies as a sign of God’s judgment or mercy. This religious group believed that the witches associated themselves with the Devil and that he was using them to carry out his evil deeds. The Puritans are much remembered for the Salem witch trials that took place between February 1692 and May 1693 in the colony of Massachusetts decorated by a series of hearing and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft (O'neill, 2017). These trial mostly targeted women where out of the 20 people that were executed during this mass hysteria, 14 of them were women.
The Puritan society also referred to women as a subject to their husbands. They believed that just like how ruled God ruled over His creation or a king over his subjects, the husband was supposed to rule over her wife, and a ‘true wife’ was supposed to submit to his husband’s authority. In this society, marriage was observed more of a contract than a religious sacrament. Puritans daughters were married at a very young age because the society believed that women were born to serve men (O'neill, 2017). Women responsibility was at home where they were limited to tasks in their husband’s homes, and their status was not very significant.
Just like in most societies in that era, women were only expected to be seen and not to be heard. In Puritan society, women had no right question or comment on the church policy, and if they did, they were exiled from the community just like the case of Ann Hutchinson (O'neill, 2017). Once married, the wife had no right to the property that she heard acquired earlier because their law did not allow a woman to have property rights separate from her husband’s. According to the rulers of the New England, these rules were important to keep order in the Puritan society.
In conclusion, the American history indicates that women’s rights have evolved a lot since the colonial eras. Women have transformed from being treated as men’s subjects, from doing mere jobs in and around their homes to the modern women who are fully independent. The kinds of Mary Chestnut and other feminists in the history of America contributed a lot to these changes. These women used the little chance they got to advocate for women’s right and equality. They claimed that women were as capable as men were and that they should be treated as equals rather than as men’s subjects. In the current era, women can compete with their male counterparts at any levels in all fields which could only be seen as invalid dreams during the colonial era, especially in the Puritans’ society.
References
O'neill, W. L. (2017). Feminism in America: A history . Routledge.
Van Woodward, C. (1981). Mary Chestnut's Civil War. New Haven: Yale University , 233.
