Notorious crimes & high misdemeanors : New England women in court 1620-1690.

Abstract

Notorious Crimes & High Misdemeanors argues that the experiences of women in court in seventeenth-century New England were shaped not only by the circumstances of their crimes and established legal and cultural attitudes towards women, but also by the attempts of colony leaders to maintain the hierarchical structure of their communities, especially in times of religious, political, and social crisis. It looks at the actions of magistrates to assert control through five chapters organized by crime—crimes of unorthodoxy, speech and apparel offenses, liquor and theft, murder and witchcraft, and fornication, adultery, and divorce.