Daughters of Eve: Pregnant Brides and Unwed Mothers in Seventeenth Century Essex County, Massachusetts

by Hambleton,Else L.

• ISBN13: 9780415948609
• ISBN10: 0415948606
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This study examines cases of fornication, bastardy, and paternity cases brought before the courts in Essex County, Massachusetts between 1640 and 1692. Prosecution and conviction rates, sentencing patterns, and socio-economic data, as well as attitudes, were analyzed to determine that women who bore illegitimate children were punished more severely than their male partners, and regarded with contempt by the majority of women. Couples who married following out-of-wedlock sex faced less opprobrium and were reintegrated into the community following a series of humiliating shame rituals.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Preface ``The World Fill'd with a Generation of Bastards'': The Puritans and Extramarital Sex	xi
``I Threatened I Would Mark Him'': Religion, Sexuality, and Gender Ideology	1	(16)
``I Know Thy Condition, Alas, Poor Wench'': A Quantitative Analysis of Illegitimate Fornication Prosecutions in the Essex County Quarterly Court, 1640--1665	17	(18)
``Priscilla Was Fined, the Child Died'': A Quantitative Analysis of Illegitimate Fornication Prosecutions in the Essex County Quarterly Court, 1666--1685	35	(20)
``I Am a Poor Destitute Creature'': Sociological Aspects of Illegitimacy in Essex County, 1640--1685	55	(18)
Listening to Women's Voices: Summaries of Selected Fornication Cases, Essex County, 1640--1685	73	(20)
``She Being Presented for Fornication'': Pregnant Brides in Seventeenth-Century Essex County	93	(16)
``Cover Our Faces with Shame'': Sociological Aspects of Premarital Pregnancy	109	(24)
``Playing the Rogue'': Rape and Issues of Consent in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts	133	(18)
Conclusion	151	(8)
Notes	159	(22)
Bibliography	181	(6)
Index	187