Reply To: The 18th century judicial process

Home / Forums / Author Forums / Ariel Lawhon / The Frozen River / The 18th century judicial process / Reply To: The 18th century judicial process

January 19, 2025 at 8:25 am #33144

I am less optimistic that Rebecca’s story would be received differently in a contemporary courtroom. Women today have more tools to support their claims of rape, a rape kit, if it is tested and reported, DNA evidence and juries and judges trained in the law. Joseph North would not escape the justice of the judicial system IF Rebecca persevered against the efforts of the defense to claim she was lying, asked for what she got or deserved to be violated. It is certainly true that fewer men would so explicitly state that but they still exist. Consider the recent social media posts, at least in the U.S., “#Your body, my choice.” There remain powerful biases about the subordinate position of women to men, regarded as a part of the correct and natural order of relationships.

Like Tara, I knew nothing about the justice system itself in 18th century America. It seemed much less objective and balanced than I expect our contemporary justice system to be. Still, there were layers of the system that could be brought to bear.

In “The Midwife’s Tale,” Ulrich writes about the laws and their administration related to fornication and pregnancy outside of marriage as Tara describes. They were wrapped up in a woman’s efforts to establish paternity of her child and, therefore, financial support. Without admitting to fornication and naming the father, she had no recourse to support for her child. The expected outcome was for the couple to marry and apparently most did as we saw with Jonathan and Sally Pierce (although Martha’s diary, as cited in Ulrich’s work, makes clear it was not a marriage he desired). If the man did settle with the mother of his child, his case was dropped from the public record while hers remained. While the process surely stigmatized the woman, fornication and childbirth out of wedlock were actually relatively common. Three of Martha and Ephraim’s children conceived a child before they married. Martha delivered the children and grandchildren of town elders and prominent citizens whose child was conceived and often born before marriage. I found this sort of tolerant and ambivalent view surprising for that time, an interesting perspective on relationships and sexuality that I never considered.

avataravataravataravataravataravataravatar