Life In 1744 Essay

Life in 1744 was much different than life in 2014. Aside from the lack of today’s modern conveniences, the roles of women were much different. I doubt if many of today’s women would stand for things to return to the way of life in 1744. The women in 1744 fell under one of two categories. The first was “feme sole”, which was an unmarried female or one in legal equivalent status and “feme covert” which referred to a married woman and the fact that the wife’s legal identity was covered by her husband. Unmarried women had more freedoms than married women. The law stated that older never married women and widows were given feme sole status and had a legal identity and therefore had the power to make contracts and buy and sell property Unmarried women were also able to write wills, serve as guardians, be executors of estates as well as sue and be sued in a court of law. The law stated that in a marriage the husband and the wife were one entity. When the woman got married, she lost her legal identity. The property that she had or owned came under the protection and influence of her husband. This includes her livestock, crops money, leases, farm and household goods and any slaves that she has. Land that was …show more content…
Sole trading in 1744 was a double edged sword for married women. The women who engaged in financial transactions were held responsible for these transactions. There were laws put into place to give the women traders some legal protection. The laws however were limited to the colony that had jurisdiction over the trade. Not all of the colonies had these laws in place to protect the women. If the woman lived in a colony without the protection of these laws, they were subject to being held liable for their own debt s in relation to their business. The only colonies that passed feme sole trader laws were Pennsylvania and South