Indentured Servitude by Anna Suranyi

Author:Anna Suranyi [Suranyi, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Coverture

A further defence available only to married women was through coverture, the legal precept that a married woman was not fully legally responsible for crimes committed with the awareness of her husband. In some cases, only the husband was prosecuted for crimes committed by a married couple.58 Some women employed a kind of coverture defence in court, claiming that they had committed crimes while under their husband’s authority, an argument that could potentially result in a complete dismissal of charges. For example, in December 1678, a woman was apprehended with a gang of horse thieves that included her two brothers and husband, but was freed after claiming “what she did, was done by coertion” even though she was caught riding one of the horses.59 Another woman argued that one of her confederates in a theft was her husband; though she produced a marriage certificate, the jury decided it was counterfeit and found her guilty.60 On the other hand, married women who were convicted of murdering their husbands – “petit treason” – were virtually always executed as hardened and incorrigible criminals. Women were far more likely to be executed for killing a spouse than men.61

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