Anne Orthwood’s Bastard by John Ruston Pagan tells the story of what Anne’s life was like living in early colonial America. The book depicts a very accurate description of what life would be like for any settler in the Americas. Settlers were enticed to move over the colonies by the Virginia company with the idea that they could achieve a life full of opportunities. There they would work as Indentured servants and serve out their term. Throughout the book there are many cases involving the sale of Indentured Servants and also the in Anne’s case of her pregnancy through her illicit relationship. These legal cases favored those with higher social status and higher economical statuses. Early American society was built with economic interests …show more content…
in mind which gave privileges to the upper class and also shaped the law throughout the colonies. The population in England was rapidly increasing, which led to a labor surplus in many fields. At this time there weren't that many people who had settled in the colonies yet. With the Virginia company making promises of a life with many opportunities, many people decided to move to the colonies to work. Men and Women during this time had many uncertainties about marriage and having a family which led them to being persuaded by labor recruiters to move. (p.14)Those who went over the colonies got there on the pretense that they would work as an indentured servant serving a certain amount of time to their contract owner. Anne, a poor individual moves to the colonies to explore new opportunities, where she has to work as an indentured servant for a certain amount of time. Life though is not what she expected. She has an illicit relationship, and through her relationship she becomes impregnated. As a result of her pregnancy she faces a chain of events that alter her life greatly. Anne is sold to a new master Jacobb Bishopp because of her relationship with her previous master's son John Kendell. While under the care of Mr. Bishopp she engages in a sexual act with John and ends up pregnant. When Mr.Bishopp learns of her pregnancy he sells her to William Waters a man of elite social status within the colonies. Though this doesn't last for long, when Waters learns of Anne’s pregnancy he feels that he has been cheated into damaged merchandise so to speak. Waters takes Bishopp to court and the trial to get try and get the sale of Anne voided. Most indentured servants during this time were viewed as property to those who they were indentured to. Only those of wealth background or those who married into wealth owned indentured servants. If you were unfit to work you were viewed as a liability. Like in the case of Anne when they found out she was pregnant no one wanted her because she wouldn't be able to work. This was a common theme in the colonies because of the economic driven mindset of those of wealth tried to make a profit in the New World. From the court case Waters vs.
Bishopp we can also begin to see how law starts to change because of economic interests throughout the colonies. In England the courts favored the idea of caveat emptor which protects the seller and puts the responsibility on the buyer. Colonists though began to diverge from this idea and sided with the buyer more. The court's view began to switch to a buyer friendly market as well did the law which mostly helped try and protect the buyer. This shift in stance was a result of trying to protect the economic interests of those in the colonies. They tried to encourage an economy that favored buyers so that buyers were more willing to buy, which helps to boost an economy. As a result law in the colonies was shaped to protect buyers. We can also see the effect that social status has within the colonies. William Waters a wealthy man of very high social standing was partly able to win the case because of who he was. Mr. Bishopp was only modestly wealthy and didn't own many indentured servants but was not as well known as Mr.Waters. Your economic and social status played a huge role in within the courts because it comes down to who you …show more content…
know. Anne never gave up the name of the father of her child until it was forced out of her during birth.
She was aware of the differences in social status between her and John, but even then she didn’t want give it up. Anne passed away during birth, which left the responsibility to care for the child up to John. John though denied any responsibility for the child even after Anne named him the father before her death. John came from a wealthy family and his relationship with Anne would have hurt his social standing. For wealthy people during this time it was common to marry other wealthy people. They would combine their wealth and if they died they would end up remarrying to gain more land and wealth which was how John's uncle gained a lot of his wealth through marriage. Marriage played a huge role in the colonies, because it was created relationships and grew the wealth of individuals. Through marriage you could gain more land, which then allowed you to make a profit of off the land and allowed to gain more indentured servants to work for
you. The magistrates convened to determine whether John Kendell should be held responsible for the care of the child. The court ruled that John was responsible for the child because Anne had named him the father before she died. There were also many similar cases during this time period because of relationships that happened out of wedlock that resulted in a child. John though was not happy with the ruling and decided to appeal the decision. John was able to get the decision overturned as they could not determine whether or not John was the legitimate father or not. John social status as the nephew of William Kendell a justice allowed for him to be acquitted of liability for the child. If John had been held responsible for the child it would have been seen as an economic burden on him. He would have to pay child support and raise the child. It would also hinder his ability to marry for economic gain because he would have a child that was born out of wedlock with a indentured servant. In high school the common narrative that you learn is that people came over to the colonies in the search of a new life, but you don't really dive into what the conditions were like. Conditions were very rough throught the colonies and many people were fooled into believing that the colonies were very glamourous. You think that people just work off their term of indentured servitude and then move on with their lives. Many indentured servants though don't last that long enough to live out their term and die before that. You think of the colonies as a place for opportunities but you don't see the actual foundation that the colonies were built on. The colonies used a corrupt system that favored the wealthy upper class to further their economic gains will shaping the way the colonies would become. The laws were shaped so who had money and status would gain from it. Moreover, from Anne Orthwood’s bastard we can see what life was truly like in the colonies. Anne lived a life that was controlled by the economic interests in mind and many people in the colonies experienced similar things. Law in the country was shaped to those with money and status like John Kendall and William Waters who the court favored in each case. The colonies were built with one sole purpose, for the economic gain of those who were wealthy and use those of lesser born status to help build their wealth.
In Anne Orthwood’s Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia, John Pagan sets out to examine the complexities of the legal system on the Eastern Shore in the seventeenth- century. He brings to light the growing differences between the English and Virginia legal systems. Pagan, an early American legal historian at the University of Richmond School of Law, spins a tragic story on the legalities surrounding an instance of out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Indentured servant Anne Orthwood’s brief encounter with a man of higher social standing produced a series of four court cases. Pagan examines each case and persons involved, vividly connecting each case to larger themes of social class, gender, labor, and economic power.
In the book Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich attempts to highlight the role of women that was typical during this particular time period. During this point in history in hierarchal New England, as stated both in Ulrich’s book and “Give Me Liberty! An American History” by Eric Foner, ordinary women were referred to as “goodwives” (Foner 70). “A married woman in early New England was simultaneously a housewife, a deputy husband, a consort, a mother, a mistress, a neighbor, and a Christian” and possibly even a heroine (Ulrich 9). While it is known that women were an integral part of economic and family life in the colonies during this time, Ulrich notes that it is unlikely
In Colonial Virginia in 1661, Rebecca Nobles was sentenced to ten lashes for bearing an illegitimate child. Had she been an indentured servant she would also have been ordered to serve her master an additional two years to repay his losses incurred during her pregnancy. After 1662, had she been an enslaved African woman she would not have been prosecuted, because in that year the Colonial government declared children born to slave women the property of their mother's master. A child born to a slave brought increased wealth, whereas the child of an indentured servant brought increased financial responsibility. This evolving legislation in Colonial Virginia reflected elite planter interests in controlling women's sexuality for economic gain. Race is also defined and manipulated to reinforce the authority and economic power of elite white men who enacted colonial legislation. As historian Kathleen M. Brown demonstrates in her book Good Wives, Nasty Wenches and Anxious Patriarchs, the concepts of gender and race intersect as colonial Virginians consolidated power and defined their society. Indeed, gender and race were integral to that goal. In particular, planter manipulations of social categories had a profound effect on the economic and political climate in Colonial Virginia.
John Ruston Pagan’s book, Anne Orthwood’s Bastard, is split into sections describing the different components of sex and law in early Virginia. Pagan describes these components through the story of Anne Orthwood, John Kendall, and their bastard son, Jasper. Anne Orthwood was born an illegitimate child. There was much shame and disgrace for illegitimate children. Although illegitimacy made Anne’s life especially hard, she also faced the same pressures as other members of her generation. Her generation was dealing with shortages of land and labor; increasing prices, rent, and unemployment rates; and declining wages. These struggles caused many people to emigrate from Britain to the Americas.
During the 1600’s people began to look for different types of work in the new world. As cash crops, such as tobacco, indigo, and rice, were growing in the South, there became a need for labor. This got the attention of convicts, debtors, and other people looking for new opportunities and money. Indentured servitude was vastly growing during the 17th and 18th centuries. Approximatively 10 million men, women, and children were moved to the new world. Women during this time found themselves being sold to men for these cash crops. A commonly used term during this time for these women was tobacco brides. Almost 7.7 million of the slaves captured and moved to the new world were African Americans. Slaves and indentured servants had it rough for
In colonial America, the court structure was quite different from that of their mother country, Great Britain. The system was a triangle of overlapping courts and common law. Common law was largely influenced by the moral code from the King James Version of the Bible, also known as moral law. In effect, these early American societies were theocratic and autocratic containing religious leaders, as well as magistrates. Sometimes these men were even one and the same. The criminal acts in colonial America were actually very similar to the crime prevalent in our society today. However, certain infractions were taken more seriously. Through the documents provided, we get a look at different crimes and their subsequent punishments in colonial
Its rulers were unable to govern, its social institutions were ill-defined, its economy was undeveloped, its politics were unstable, and its cultural identity was indistinct.” Yet despite this near-anarchic atmosphere, David Hackett Fischer in Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989), concludes that the legal system was fairly effective because it succeeded in fulfilling its main purpose, to strictly enforce the colony’s hierarchical system. Therefore, the proliferation of moral crimes or violence committed among colonists of lower status was irrelevant in determining the deterrent effect on society because that was never the primary intent of the colony’s legal system. The Virginia courts enforced this hierarchical/patriarchal idea of showing deference and respect to one’s “superiors,” whether it involved the relationship between master and slave, father and son, or husband and wife. Violent crimes which threatened this social system were therefore savagely punished, and as a result “there was remarkably little violence by the poor against the rich, or by the humble against the elite.” A defendant’s position within those relationships played an important role in assigning their punishment. Virginia law considered the murder of a patriarch treason, punishable by death. Moreover, literate members of society belonging disproportionately to the elite class could always
While under English control, each of the three regions of colonial America developed its own economic system- plantation agriculture was based in the Southern colonies, but other sectors of the economy flourished in the Northern and Middle colonies (along with some forms of agriculture). The natural resources that were available at the time provided the foundation for each region’s unique specialty. However, one could argue that these economies eventually led to the development of certain social issues within colonial society, such as the cruelty of slavery, the Salem Witch Trials, and even the lack of available labor in Maryland.
In the North, women, especially colonial wives, had basically no legal rights. They could not vote, sell or buy property, or run their own business. Women in the North also had extensive work responsibilities when it came to housework. Northern society considered slaves less than human beings, and, consequently, did not give slaves any rights that would protect them from cruel treatment. The Southern colonies’ were no different. “Women in Southern society - and Northern society as well - shared a common trait: second-class citizenship”(74). In the South, women could not vote or preach and had very little education. They were instead taught to perfect the skills that could be used around the house such as sewing or gardening. In the South, slaves were branded as savages and inferior and did not possess any rights. Southern slaves possessed even less legal rights than Northern Slaves. Although the colonies had similar social structures, they had different
Slaves during the mid-1800s were considered chattel and did not have rights to anything that opposed their masters’ wishes. “Although the slaves’ rights could never be completely denied, it had to be minimized for the institution of slavery to function” (McLaurin, 118). Female slaves, however, usually played a different role for the family they were serving than male slaves. Housework and helping with the children were often duties that slaveholders designated to their female slaves. Condoned by society, many male slaveholders used their female property as concubines, although the act was usually kept covert. These issues, aided by their lack of power, made the lives of female slaves
In this essay, we will examine three documents to prove that they do indeed support the assertion that women’s social status in the United States during the antebellum period and beyond was as “domestic household slaves” to their husband and children. The documents we will be examining are: “From Antislavery to Women 's Rights” by Angelina Grimke in 1838, “A Fourierist Newspaper Criticizes the Nuclear Family” in 1844, and “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” by Margaret Fuller in 1845.
Mainly because so many of the settlers that came during that time were indentured servants. “Of the 120,000 English immigrants who entered the Chesapeake region during the seventeenth century, three-quarters came as servants” (Foner 61). Although many of them died while they were still under contract, a very large number of them were able to settle in the colonies. They were an important part of life just as every African slave was. They did almost all of the work that was involved in handling crops of corn, cotton, and mostly tobacco that was used during that time. They were a normal part of life during that time period that was essential to the settlement of America. Indentured servants also had an impact in the ratio of men to women in the colonies. “Men in the Chesapeake outnumbered women for most of the seventeenth century by our or five to one. The vast majority of women who emigrated to the region came as indentured servants. Since they usually had to complete their terms of service before marrying, they did not begin to form families until their mid-twenties. The high death rate, unequal ratio between the sexes, and late age of marriage for those who found partners retarded population growth and produced a society with large umbers of single men, widows, and orphans” (Foner
The motives of the founders of the colonies in each region played a significant part in the regions development. Sir Walter Raleigh and the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, were among the first to try to develop settlements in the New World. Their motive to establish Roanoke and Jamestown in the Chesapeake region was primarily to make money. Thus the constant reminder that their first goal was to make profits influenced the settlers of Virginia. However, this conviction for making profits almost was the collapse of the colony for its settlers were more interested in finding gold then building shelter and growing food, finally found its outlet in the cash crop, tobacco, which John Rolfe perfected. Virginians were already greedy and self-centered. They were more concerned about personal gain than equality, and so the different levels of society appeared. Life centered on plantations, and so the rich planters were most important. Their constant need for labor source led to the introduction of land grants and indentured servants through the head-right system. In addition, the Carolinas, proprietary colonies created by Lord Berekley et al, was established strictly to profit the proprietor which they eventually did due also to cash crops.
Women slaves were subject to unusually cruel treatment such as rape and mental abuse from their master’s, their unique experience must have been different from the experience men slaves had. While it is no secret that the horrors of the institution of slavery were terrible and unimaginable; those same horrors were no big deal for southern plantation owners. Many engaged in cruelty towards their slaves. Some slave owners took particular interest in their young female slaves. Once caught in the grips of a master’s desire it would have been next to impossible to escape. In terms of actual escape from a plantation most women slaves had no reason to travel and consequentially had no knowledge of the land. Women slaves had the most unfortunate of situations; there were no laws that would protect them against rape or any injustices. Often the slave that became the object of the master’s desires would also become a victim of the mistress of the household. Jealousy played a detrimental role in the dynamic the enslaved women were placed within. Regardless of how the slave felt she could have done little to nothing to ease her suffering.
Unlike the well-defined social classes of England, the colonies had a streamline class structure, which gave individuals the chance to rise on the social latter. New settlers living on the coast could become rich by fishing and selling what they caught. If fishing was not a settler's strong point, then they could try their hand at farming. Getting the land to farm on was the easy part. The 'head right' system gave each male 50 acres, and 50 acres to each indentured servant he might bring over. England could not do this because England so defined the social classes and they did not have enough land that they could give to every male and his indentured servant.