Divorce and the Changing Status of Women in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts

Abstract

W v r HEN a neighbor asked John Backus, silversmith of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in I784, why he kicked and struck his wife, John replied that it was Partly owing to his Education for his father often treated his mother in the same manner.'John's mother may have tolerated that abuse but his wife did not: she complained of his cruelty, desertion, and adultery, and obtained a divorce. This epitome of two generations' marital strife, one item in early Massachusetts divorce records, suggests how valuable such records may be to the interpretation of marriage and family life in the past. Divorce proceedings not only elucidate customs and ideals of marriage; they also disclose the marital behavior of the litigants. The history of divorce practice documents sex-role expectations, permits comparison between the obligations and freedoms of husbands and of wives, and provides a test of the double standard of sexual morality. Divorce records from provincial Massachusetts are especially interesting because the years they cover are those least explored in studies of marriage and family in New England. Historians have yet to explain the transition from Puritan to Victorian standards, but current research has begun to suggest that unrest and change in patterns of sexual and familial behavior were conspicuous during the eighteenth century.2 Records of divorce in provincial Massachusetts illuminate these littleknown aspects of individuals' lives.3