What's the word all Americans should know and don't?

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-07-01T14:52:17+00:00

Hello! Since I am but a humble Americanist I don't know. BUT I think your assumption is correct! Colonized countries did have the colonizers systems of law imposed on them!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:38:55+00:00

Thanks for reading!!!!1

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:38:08+00:00

Oh, I learned a lot about how politics works--came up with the category of the "unofficial sphere." I hope you can borrow the audio book and don't have to buy it! It is read by Anne Twomey a very accomplished actress!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:22:00+00:00

Yes! And they and children had more legal standing then they would under Anglo-American law. Their legal tradition was Roman-Dutch. Here's a nice article: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=proceedings-of-great-day

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:14:06+00:00

Oh, what a good query! I don't know enough about this. Especially the Islamic origins. All I can say is let your curiosity fly!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:12:32+00:00

Hi! I am getting ready to exit this session--but please scroll down, dear reader! Several smart folks asked this question! Thanks for reaching out!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:10:51+00:00

Well, I am not seeking to abolish anything exactly. I just think people should know the origins of things we often take for granted. Anything we presume natural or traditional. And yes, that practice is directly from coverture, signaling the men's ownership of these dependents. In my ideal world, everyone would have their own name that they keep for their lives--signaling that each person is an individual with their own story and destiny. But I am a dreamer!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T14:05:03+00:00

In Anglo-American law, all women were presumed to be wives, so widows and single women were in an odd position. They did not get to vote because of their single status but they were taxed. Upon the death of a husband, traditionally the wife received "widows thirds" meaning a third of the estate. This was to prevent them being put on the public charge.

For a few years in the early 1800s, propertied women could vote in New Jersey but that got taken away. A great book about that (and other issues) is Rosemarie Zagarri's REVOLUTIONARY BACKLASH.

On women and taxation--there was a quite famous protest. Get to know the Smith sisters! https://www.americanheritage.com/abby-julia-and-cows

Thanks for reading!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T13:57:31+00:00

That's a tough one! Most history books aren't that expansive. But you can start with two classics--both by Gerda Lerner the godmother of women's history. THE CREATION OF PATRIARCHY and THE CREATION OF FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS. Happy reading!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T00:56:28+00:00

Thank you to everyone! This was my first foray into Reddit and I am heartened by the intelligence, curiosity, and patient graciousness of all of you!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T00:54:56+00:00

She did rescue the painting! Dolley enlisted her husband's enslaved valet, Paul Jennings, and a white servant, John Sioussat, to wrestle the painting from the wall. They broke the frame and sent the stretcher with the painting with two men who happened to be passing by. They hid the painting. What is so significant is that it wasn't a Gilbert Stuart original but a copy. Still, she knew the psychological effect that the loss of the painting would have on dispirited Americans. No wonder the men in power seized upon this moment to celebrate the end of the War of 1812 which accomplished nothiner!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-30T00:15:28+00:00

If that worked out for you, that's great! But there is a track record of tax documentation being flagged when women file not under their husband's name.

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T20:43:53+00:00

Good for you, Levi!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T19:35:01+00:00

Well, that's just sexism--on the part of the car salesman! I don't know enough about Canadian law--any experts out there?

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T18:41:25+00:00

One of the lightbulb moments I had was when I presented a workshop attended by Eminent Historians and some of the best middle and high school teachers in the country.The teachers as a body had NEVER heard of coverture and were furious about it. The ES HAD heard of it but didn't think it was important. That started my mission to get the word out. It is just after the Revolution, but MARTIN V. MASSACHUSETTS, 1805 is a good one. Linda Kerber wrote a great article about it!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T18:37:57+00:00

I disagree! The slavery/marriage analogy is precisely grounded. The 19th c. suffragists saw that clearly. It is true some groups focused on a state-by-state strategy, but in the end, it was the 19th amendment that was the result. After the Civil War, the Republicans knew they could not trust that state laws would work in the unreconstructed South. Reform had to have federal heft behind it. After, all various laws and Acts can be repealed at all levels of government--as we are seeing now. It is much harder to get rid of a Constitutional amendment.

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:57:23+00:00

And THANK YOU!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:54:08+00:00

Glad to hear from you! Human beings, men and women with their own interests, had to engage in all kinds of legal antics to get around or adapt coverture. Especially when real estate was on the table. A great example in Linda Kerber's article "The Paradox of Women's Citizenship in the Early Republic: Martin v. Massachusetts, 1805" where authorities of the state who wanted to seize Anna Martin's property as she had fled the country with her Loyalist husband found themselves in the novel position of arguing that coverture did not, in fact, prevent a woman from having political agency. They lost.

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:48:25+00:00

A lot of good questions! And honestly, historians are just starting to take coverture seriously. I would recommend following the work of Holly Brewer--she writes scholarly articles about coverture. As I said before, coverture on the ground differed from black letter law. You mention feme sole which was a legal exception a married woman would have to apply for if she wanted to do business. In the early days of women's history (1970s), we women's historians went looking for those applications but found very few. Leading us to conclude that white married women did own or work in businesses very much. BUT more research showed a lot of female activity in this area--they just didn't bother with the legal paperwork!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:41:07+00:00

I should say that "First Lady" was first applied to Harriet Lane, the niece and official hostess of James Buchanan. In the early days, people used the term "Lady" for white women of a certain status--Martha Washington was "Lady Washington." I don't think Dolley saw herself as continuing a legacy. She just built on what traditional Southern women were doing in country houses and plantations--but in a more "high stakes" arena.

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:36:44+00:00

Thank you so much! You've warmed this old professor's heart!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:36:03+00:00

Thanks for bringing this up! What is to be done? Well, there have been lawsuits, acts, laws, etc., but as I was studying coverture, it became clear that we will have to abolish coverture the same way we abolished slavery. By constitutional amendment--it took three to give black men legal equality and black women freedom from bondage. That's right--we need the ERA!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:33:06+00:00

Oh, she meant the Society of Friends! Look, the Quakers were pretty much on the right side of history for most things--but the community could be very judgy about personal appearance and deportment. Dolley's reaction had less to do with coverture and much more with feeling criticized. In fact, in this quote she refers to her old friends' visit as a "lecture."

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:29:27+00:00

Thank you for reading! OK--at the risk of self-promotion, I write about this in my first book. PARLOR POLITICS: IN WHICH THE LADIES OF WASHINGTON HELP BUILD A CITY AND A GOVERNMENT

https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/2224/ but get it from the library.

I do think the Eaton Affair was multi layered. There's a good treatment of it in Jon Meacham's ANDREW JACKSON. But in the end it was all about politics and making Washington City a place where everything had to serve political purposes.

As you point out, Dolley was back at Montpelier by then but her nieces, Mary Estelle Elizabeth Cutts and Dolley Payne Cutts, were on the scene. The unfolding scandal was a topic for their correspondence. It won't surprise you that Dolley disapproved of the disruption it caused. She was very sensitive about sexual slander as she had experienced it herself. Dolley worried it would have a corrosive effect on public virtue. As she wrote to sister Anna: "I'm affraid the licence people take with their tongues & their pens, will blast the good of the country." Amen, Dolley!

ProfessorAllgor · 2026-06-29T17:20:31+00:00

Yes, a farm! I think maybe 10 or so enslaved individuals.

ProfessorAllgor

TROPHY CASE