Brabbling Women: Disorderly Speech and the Law in Early Virginia

by Terri L. Snyder

Description

Brabbling Women takes its title from a 1662 law enacted by Virginia's burgesses, which was intended to offer relief to the "poore husbands" forced into defamation suits because their "brabling" wives had slandered or scandalized their neighbors. To quell such episodes of female misrule, lawmakers decreed that husbands could choose either to pay damages or to have their wives publicly ducked. But there was more at stake here. By examining women's use of language, Terri L. Snyder demonstrates show more how women resisted and challenged oppressive political, legal, and cultural practices in colonial Virginia. Contending that women's voices are heard most clearly during episodes of crisis, Snyder focuses on disorderly speech to illustrate women's complex relationships to law and authority in the seventeenth century. Ordinary women, Snyder finds, employed a variety of strategies to prevail in domestic crises over sexual coercion and adultery, conflicts over women's status as servants or slaves, and threats to women's authority as independent household governors. Some women entered the political forum, openly participating as rebels or loyalists; others sought legal redress for their complaints. Wives protested the confines of marriage; unfree women spoke against masters and servitude. By the force of their words, all strove to thwart political leaders and local officials, as well as the power of husbands, masters, and neighbors. The tactics colonial women used, and the successes they met, reflect the struggles for empowerment taking place in defiance of the inequalities of the colonial period. show less

Recommendations

Anne Orthwood's Bastard by John Ruston Pagan

Anne Orthwood's Bastard

John Ruston Pagan

Women and the Law of Property in Early America by Marylynn Salmon

Women and the Law of Property in Early America

Marylynn Salmon

The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England by Carol F. Karlsen

The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England

Carol F. Karlsen

Everyday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke

Everyday Life in Early America

David Freeman Hawke

The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624 by Peter C. Mancall

The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624

Peter C. Mancall

Within Her Power: Propertied Women in Colonial Virginia (New World in the Atlantic World) by Linda Sturtz

Within Her Power: Propertied Women in Colonial Virginia (New World in the Atlantic World)

Linda Sturtz

Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 by Cornelia Hughes Dayton

Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789

Cornelia Hughes Dayton

The Americans; a social history of the United States, 1587-1914 by J. C. Furnas

The Americans; a social history of the United States, 1587-1914

J. C. Furnas

Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia by Kathleen M. Brown

Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia

Kathleen M. Brown

Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1700 by Warren M. Billings

The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1700

Warren M. Billings

Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust

Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War

Drew Gilpin Faust

The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia by Edmund S. Morgan

American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia

Edmund S. Morgan

The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser

The Weaker Vessel

Antonia Fraser

First Generations: Women in Colonial America by Carol Berkin

First Generations: Women in Colonial America

Carol Berkin

The Many Legalities of Early America: A Conference Sponsored by the Institute of Early American History and Culture and the Institute of Bill of Rights Law, November 22-24, 1996, Williamsburg, Virginia by Christopher L. Tomlins

Christopher L. Tomlins

Envisioning an English Empire : Jamestown and the Making of the North Atlantic World by Robert Appelbaum

Envisioning an English Empire : Jamestown and the Making of the North Atlantic World

Robert Appelbaum

Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750-1830 by Andrew R. L. Cayton

Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750-1830

Andrew R. L. Cayton

Small Worlds, Large Questions: Explorations in Early American Social History, 1600-1850 by Darrett Bruce Rutman

Small Worlds, Large Questions: Explorations in Early American Social History, 1600-1850

Darrett Bruce Rutman

The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians by Michael Leroy Oberg

The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians

Michael Leroy Oberg

Ladies of the Lamplight by Kay Reynolds Blair

Ladies of the Lamplight

Kay Reynolds Blair

Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America by David S. Shields

Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America

David S. Shields

Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America by Linda K. Kerber

Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America

Linda K. Kerber

The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia by Michael A. McDonnell

The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia

Michael A. McDonnell

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence by Carol Berkin

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

Carol Berkin

American Colonies: The Settling of North America by Alan Taylor

American Colonies: The Settling of North America

Alan Taylor

Uncommon Common Women by Anne Butler

Uncommon Common Women

Anne Butler

Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society by Mary Beth Norton

Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society

Mary Beth Norton

The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 by Nancy F. Cott

The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835

Nancy F. Cott

Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution. by T. H. Breen

Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution.

T. H. Breen

Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle

Home Life in Colonial Days

Alice Morse Earle

Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 by Mary Beth Norton

Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800

Mary Beth Norton

An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South, 1730-1815 by Joyce E. Chaplin

An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South, 1730-1815

Joyce E. Chaplin

Early American technology : making and doing things from the colonial era to 1850 by Judith A. McGaw

Early American technology : making and doing things from the colonial era to 1850

Judith A. McGaw

The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel Boorstin

The Americans: The Colonial Experience

Daniel Boorstin

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century by April Lee Hatfield

Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century

April Lee Hatfield

Martin's Hundred by Ivor Noël Hume

Martin's Hundred

Ivor Noël Hume

The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 by Rhys Isaac

The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790

Rhys Isaac

Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America by Sara M. Evans

Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America

Sara M. Evans

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America

David Hackett Fischer

Women of the West by Cathy Luchetti

Women of the West

Cathy Luchetti

The Chesapeake in the seventeenth century : essays on Anglo-American society by Thad W. Tate

The Chesapeake in the seventeenth century : essays on Anglo-American society

Thad W. Tate

Sexual Revolution in Early America by Richard Godbeer

Sexual Revolution in Early America

Richard Godbeer

Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women by Marion Rust

Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women

Marion Rust

The Prospect before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe by Olwen Hufton

The Prospect before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe

Olwen Hufton

Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752 by William A. Pettigrew

Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

William A. Pettigrew

Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763 by Lorena S. Walsh

Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763

Lorena S. Walsh

Complete Recommendations

Member Reviews

Featured Recent Thumbs

1 review

thornton37814 2,948 reviews

Examining records of courts as well as the laws themselves, author Terri Snyder takes a look at women's attempts to stand up for themselves in seventeenth-century Virginia. Most cases focus on York County. Readers will understand women's legal status under a system of coverture. This academic work will not appeal to persons more interested in popular treatments of the subject.

Sep 3, 2021

All Reviews