The Many Legalities of Early America
This collection of seventeen original essays reshapes the field of early American legal history not by focusing simply on law, or even on the relationship between law and society, but by using the concept of "legality" to explore the myriad ways in which the people of early America ordered their relationships with one another, whether as individuals, groups, classes, communities, or states.\ Addressing issues of gender, ethnicity, family, patriarchy, culture, and dependence, contributors...
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This collection of seventeen original essays reshapes the field of early American legal history not by focusing simply on law, or even on the relationship between law and society, but by using the concept of "legality" to explore the myriad ways in which the people of early America ordered their relationships with one another, whether as individuals, groups, classes, communities, or states. Addressing issues of gender, ethnicity, family, patriarchy, culture, and dependence, contributors explore the transatlantic context of early American law, the negotiation between European and indigenous legal cultures, the multiple social contexts of the rule of law, and the transformation of many legalities into an increasingly uniform legal culture. Taken together, these essays reveal the extraordinary diversity and complexity of the roots of early America's legal culture. Contributors are Mary Sarah Bilder, Holly Brewer, James F. Brooks, Richard Lyman Bushman, Christine Daniels, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, David Barry Gaspar, Katherine Hermes, John G. Kolp, David Thomas Konig, James Muldoon, William M. Offutt Jr., Ann Marie Plane, A. G. Roeber, Terri L. Snyder, and Linda L. Sturtz. Stanley N. Katz This is a rich volume that will stand for some time as the single most important text on the relation of law to life in our early history.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Many Legalities of Colonization: A Manifesto of Destiny for Early American Legal History1Pt. 1Atlantic CrossingsDiscovery, Grant, Charter, Conquest, or Purchase: John Adams on the Legal Basis for English Possession of North America25Salamanders and Sons of God: The Culture of Appeal in Early New England47"Rigid and Inclement": Origins of the Jamaica Slave Laws of the Seventeenth Century78Legal Fictions and the Rule(s) of Law: The Jeffersonian Critique of Common-Law Adjudication97Pt. 2Intercultural Encounters"Justice Will Be Done Us": Algonquian Demands for Reciprocity in the Courts of European Settlers123"Lest We Go in Search of Relief to Our Lands and Our Nation": Customary Justice and Colonial Law in the New Mexico Borderlands, 1680-1821150Customary Laws of Marriage: Legal Pluralism, Colonialism, and Narragansett Indian Identity in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island181Pt. 3Rules of Law: Legal Relations as Social Relations"Liberty to Complaine": Servant Petitions in Maryland, 1652-1797219"As Though I My Self Was Pr[e]sent": Virginia Women with Power of Attorney250Women and the Political Culture of Eighteenth-Century Virginia: Gender, Property Law, and Voting Rights272Age of Reason? Children, Testimony, and Consent in Early America293Pt. 4Rules of Law: Legal Regimes and Their Social EffectsWas There a Calvinist Type of Patriarchy? New Haven Colony Reconsidered in the Early Modern Context337The Limits of Authority: Courts, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Middle Colonies, 1670-1710357Farmers in Court: Orange County, North Carolina, 1750-1776388The Lorig Road to Vidal: Charity Law and State Formation in Early America414Afterword: The Death and Transfiguration of Early American Legal History442Index449Notes on the Contributors465
\ From the PublisherThis is a rich volume that will stand for some time as the single most important text on the relation of law to life in our early history. (Stanley N. Katz, Princeton University) \ A giant step forward! By conceptualizing legal issues as social and political legalities, these essays add a new dimension to the study of early American law and make it accessible to all historians. (James Henretta, University of Maryland)\ This is a book of formidable research, sophisticated analysis, and graceful writing. (Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa)\ \ \ \ \ \ Stanley N. KatzThis is a rich volume that will stand for some time as the single most important text on the relation of law to life in our early history.\ \ \ James HenrettaA giant step forward! By conceptualizing legal issues as social and political legalities, these essays add a new dimension to the study of early American law and make it accessible to all historians.\ \ \ \ \ Linda K. KerberThis is a book of formidable research, sophisticated analysis, and graceful writing.\ \
