Women at Law in Early Colonial Maryland

The settlers in early colonial Maryland had to form a new legal system while remaining in-sync with the contemporary laws of England. This book looks at how one group of settlers, women, negotiated their place in society via this new legal system. Drawing on the work of Lois Green Carr and Lorena Walsh, this book begins with an understanding that women had more rights in the earliest years of the colony than they did in mother England. They used this status, along with a changing legal system, to establish a place for themselves in the new society. How they did this is at the heart of this book.