LibGuides Home: New Haven County Court Records: Women's History

Books

The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 by Nancy F. Cott
Call Number: HQ1418 .C67
ISBN: 9780300072983
Publication Date: 1997-07-21
LibGuides: Through the perusal of women's personal documents as well as published views about and advice to females, Nancy F. Cott examines the development of the concept of domesticity and "woman's sphere" in New England during the early national period of American history.
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England by Carol F. Karlsen
Call Number: BF1576 .K37 1987
ISBN: 0393317595
Publication Date: 1998-04-17
LibGuides: Carol F. Karlsen examines the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.
Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic by Rosemarie Zagarri
ISBN: 9780812220735
Publication Date: 2008-12-09
LibGuides: Integrating the approaches of women's historians and political historians, Rosemarie Zagarri explores changes in women's status that occurred from the time of the American Revolution until the election of Andrew Jackson.
Women and the Law of Property in Early America by Marylynn Salmon
Call Number: KF524 .S24 1986
ISBN: 0807816876
Publication Date: 1986-01-01
LibGuides: In this study of women's property rights in early America, Marylynn Salmon discusses the effect of formal rules of law on women's lives. By focusing on such areas such as conveyancing, contracts, divorce, separate estates, and widows' provisions, Salmon presents a full picture of women's legal rights from 1750 to 1830.
Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 by Cornelia Hughes Dayton
Call Number: KFC3691.W6 D39 1995
ISBN: 9780807845615
Publication Date: 1995-12-11
LibGuides: Cornelia Hughes Dayton investigates the changing patterns of women's participation in early American courts across a broad range of legal actions, including proceedings related to debt, divorce, illicit sex, rape, and slander. Using the court records of New Haven, which originally had the most Puritan-dominated legal regime of all the colonies, Dayton argues that Puritanism's insistence on godly behavior and communal modes of disputing initially created unusual opportunities for women's voices to be heard within the legal system.

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Articles

Areen, Judith. “Uncovering the Reformation Roots of American Marriage and Divorce Law.” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 26, no. 1 (2014): 29-90. https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/7062/05_26YaleJL_Feminism29_2014_.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y.

Dayton, Cornelia Hughes. “Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an Eighteenth-Century New England Village.” The William and Mary Quarterly 48, no. 1 (January 1991): 19-49. https://doi.org/10.2307/2937996.

Hermes, Katherine A. and Caruso, Beth M. “Between God and Satan: Thomas Thornton, Witch-Hunting, and Religious Mission in the English Atlantic World, 1647–1693.” Connecticut History Review 61, no. 2 (2022): 42-82. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5406/26395991.61.2.04.

Wolfe, Missy. “‘Always a Wayward Daughter’: The First Dutch Jurisdiction of Greenwich, Connecticut.” Connecticut History Review 54, no. 2 (2015): 193-216. https://doi.org/10.2307/44370297.

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This guide provides information about using archival records at the Connecticut State Library.

Witchcraft

Information about witchcraft panics and prosecutions in Connecticut.

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Judicial Department (RG 003)
New Haven County Court cases involving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; women; underrepresented groups; and other selected subjects of research interest have been digitized and made available for online viewing.

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