Date of Last Revision
2023-05-03 05:04:17
Major
History
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2018
Abstract
During the seventeenth century, New England was composed of several independent colonies of varying size and success. In the Puritan and separatist colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, and Plymouth, entire communities, including “others,” those who were relegated outside of the community on the basis of their status or faith, worked with the theocratical legal system to police sexual morality and preserve social hierarchies that colonists understood to be fundamentally intertwined. This commitment was so strong that these colonies overlooked centuries of English legal custom when drafting harsher fornication laws, relied on the expert testimony of midwives over that of men, even those who were reputable members of the community, and placed a greater emphasis on protecting status-based hierarchies and economic order than preserving hierarchies of gender and race
Research Sponsor
Gina Martino
First Reader
Michael Levin
Second Reader
Walter Hixson
Recommended Citation
Sciscento, Bridget, "Fornication Prosecutions beyond the Mainstream Community and the Role of Community Policing in Early Colonial New England" (2018). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 711.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/711
Included in
History of Gender Commons, Legal Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons