Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, And Anxious Patriarchs: An Analysis

Power can be defined as having the ability to do something and it is related to almost every aspect of life from economic power to power of attorney and so forth. The power of women in colonial America is a subject understudied since there is little evidence that women had much power in a patriarchal dominated society. Kathleen Brown and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s works explore the lives of women in different parts of colonial America and each argues women’s power from different perspectives. Brown uses gender, class, and race to show the exclusion of women in most matters of life, especially African-American women but through courting and bastard laws women had a small extension of power in colonial Virginia. Ulrich focuses on women in New England

Heavily influenced by a patriarchal order in society, women’s power and status depended upon a husband’s standing, giving way to the exclusion of females from political, economic, and even familial matters. Brown cites the numerous laws passed to regulate marriage and women’s sexuality in the late seventeenth century as example to illustrate the seriousness of limiting female power. However, in two instances Brown provides situations in which women, English and African- American had power even if it was small and

Identifying the patriarchal order that existed, Ulrich demonstrates situations in which women gained power on an economic, domestic, and social level. Like discussed in Brown, marriage was seen as an economic contract more than anything and in some cases in NE women found themselves helping their families economically. Deputy husbands, like Anne Wood or Mary Hunt, could sell products for extra income aside from their husbands as they went out for trade or to conduct business. The skills and abilities a woman acquired for her husband’s job allowed for her to gain a unique handle into the business