Woman, Church & State

462

If it is a crime to buy and sell wives, let the men who do such things be punished; if there is no crime in the transaction, why should the wife who is sold be punished. Unfortunately this is not a solitary instance of law made or administered to punish women in order to teach men. —English Women’s Suffrage Journal.

Before Mr. Justice Denman, at the Liverpool Assizes, Betsey Wardle was charged with marrying George Chisnal at Eccleston, bigamously, her former husband being alive. It was stated by the woman that, as her first husband had sold her for a quart of beer, she thought she was at liberty to marry again.

George Chisnal, the second husband, apparently just out of his teens was called.

His Lordship – “How did you come to marry this woman?”

Witness [in the Lancashire vernacular] – “Hoo did a what?” [Laughter.]

Question repeated – “A bowt her.” [Laughter.]

His Lordship – “You are not fool enough to suppose you can buy another man’s wife?” Oi? [Laughter.]

His Lordship – “How much did you give for her?” Six pence. [Great laughter.]

His Lordship asked him how long he had lived with the prisoner.

Witness – “Going on for three years.”

His Lordship – “Do you want to take her back again?”

“Awl keep her if you loike.” [Laughter.]

His Lordship (addressing the prisoner) – It is absolutely necessary that I should pass some punishment upon you in order that people may understand that men have no more right to sell their wives than they have to sell other people’s wives, or to sell other people’s horses or cows, or anything of the kind. You cannot make that a legal transaction. So many of you seem to be ignorant of that, that it is necessary to give you some punishment in order that you may understand it. It is not necessary it should be long, but you must be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for one week. – “News of the World,” 1883.

A peculiar case came up in the mayor’s office at Vincennes, Ind., in 1887. A man named Bonn sold his wife to another man named Burch for $300, and held Burch’s note therefor. The sale was a reality, but the note was never paid, hence the difficulty.

“We know a man in the Black Hills – a man who is well-to-do and respected – the foundation of whose fortune was $4,000, the sum for which he sold his wife to a neighbor. The sale was purely a matter of business all around, and the parties to it were highly satisfied.” 1889. – “The Times,” Bismarck, N.D.

463

In “The Doncaster Gazette” of March 25, 1803, a sale is thus described: “A fellow sold his wife, as a cow, in Sheffield market place a few days ago. The lady was put into the hands of a butcher, who held her by a halter fastened around her waist. ‘What do you ask for your cow?’ said a bystander. ‘A guinea’ replied the husband. ‘Done,’ cried the other, and immediately led away his bargain. We understand that the purchaser and his ‘cow’ live very happily together.” Ashton. —The Progress of Women.

464

“Morning Herald,” March 11, 1802. – On the 11th of last month a person sold, at the market cross, in Chapel en la Frith, a wife, a child, and as much furniture as would set up a beggar, for eleven shillings.

“Morning Herald,” April 16, 1802. – A butcher sold his wife by auction at the last market day at Hereford. The lot brought £1 4s. and a bowl of punch.

“Annual Register,” February 14, 1806. – A man named John Garsthorpe exposed his wife for sale in the market at Hall about 1 o’clock, but owing to the crowd which such an extraordinary occurrence had brought together, he was obliged to defer the sale, and take her away, about 4 o’clock. However, he again brought her out, and she was sold for 20 guineas, and delivered with a halter, to a person named Houseman, who had lodged with them for four or five years.

“Morning Post,” October 10, 1808. – One of those disgraceful scenes which have of late become too common took place on Friday se’nnight at Knaresborough. Owing to some jealousy, or other family difference, a man brought his wife, equipped in the usual style, and sold her at the market cross for 6d and a quid of tobacco. —Ibid.

465

Our laws are based on the all-sufficiency of man’s rights; society exists for men only; for women, merely in so far as they are represented by some man, are in the mundt, or keeping of some man. Herbert Spencer. —Descriptive Sociology, England.

466

A committee appointed by the National Woman Suffrage Association, at that time in convention assembled in Washington, waited upon President Cleveland with the memorial.

467

Mediaeval Christian husbands imprisoned erring wives in cages so small they could neither stand upright nor lie down at full length. Mediaeval Christian priests boiled living infants in osier baskets in presence of helpless heretical mothers. In mediaeval times the public scourging of women was one of the amusements of the carnival; even as late as the eighteenth century English gentlemen, according to Herbert Spencer, made up parties of pleasure to see women whipped at Bridewell.

468

Seduction was connived at that the guardian might secure the estate of the ward. —Ibid.

469

The Salic law had not preference to one sex over the other – purely economical law which gave houses and lands to males who should dwell there, and consequently to whom it would be of most service. —Spirit of the Laws.

470

In order to give color to the usurpation (for it was nothing better), the lawyers cited an obscure article from the code of the barbarous Salians, which, as they pretended had always been the acknowledged law of the French monarchy… Since that time the Salic law, as it is called, has been regarded as an essential constitutional principle in France. —Student’s History of France, p. 19.

471

Montesquieu. —Spirit of the Laws.

472

Women in England were for more than a thousand years legislated for as slaves. Crimes committed by men which could be atoned for by a fine, were by women punished with burning alive. The period is not very distant when she was distinctly legislated for as a servant and but on a level with chattel slaves. —Hist. Crime in England.

473

American Law, 1829.

474

Through the influence of Governor M. Nutt, who instituted many reforms.

475

There was no distinction between offenses against the church on one hand, and offenses against the state or individual on the other. Cases of theft and sorcery, like those of witchcraft, could be tried in the church. From the position of the clergy as law-givers, it follows not only that the secular laws had the sanction of religion, but that religious observance were enforced by the secular arm.

476

From 499 to 1066. Herbert Spencer. —Descriptive Sociology.

477

To women were still applied those punishments, which had been instituted by the men whose practice it was to buy their wives and sell their daughters. Pike. —Hist. Crime in England.

478

Bracton. —De Legibus Anglice I, 479.

479

“The reformation altered, but did not better the condition of woman. Socially it rescued her from the priest to make her the chattel of the husband, and doctrinally it expunged her altogether. Martin Luther declared that the two sacred books, which especially point to woman as the agent of man’s final redemption – the books of Esther and Revelations – that in ‘so far as I esteem them, it would be no loss if they were thrown into the river’.”

480

“The forefathers of Benjamin Franklin used a Bible kept fastened under the seat of a four-legged stool, the leaves held in place by pack-threads. When the family assembled to hear it read, one of the number was posted as sentinel some distance from the house to give warning of any stranger’s approach, in which case the stool was hurriedly replaced upon its legs, and some one seated upon it for more effectual concealment of the book.”

481

Herbert Spencer. —Descriptive Sociology, England.

482

The English Women’s Suffrage Journal, November, 1886, reported: “Mrs. – rose to move a resolution. After reading a memorial, she said: ’Now, when I was asked to add a few words of support to the memorial I have just read, my first feeling was that I was very far from the right person to do so, inasmuch as being a married woman – and therefore disqualified – and rightly disqualified,” etc.

483

The coverture of a woman disables her from making contracts to the prejudice of herself or her husband without his allowance or confirmation.

484

I have arrived at conclusions which I keep to myself as yet, and only utter as Greek phogagta sunetotsi, the principle of which is, that there will never be a good world for women till the last monk, and therewith the last remnant of the monastic idea of, and legislation for, woman, i.e. the Canon Law is civilized off the face of the earth. Meanwhile all the most pure and high-minded women in England and Europe have been brought up under the shadows of the Canon Law, and have accepted it with their usual divine self-sacrifice, as their destiny by law of God, and nature, and consider their own womanhood outraged when it, their tyrant, is meddled with. Canon Charles Kingsley. —Letter to John Stuart Mill, June 17, 1849, in Life and Letters.

485

Dowers were first introduced into England by the Danish king, Cnut or Canute, and into Denmark by Swein, father of Canute, who bestowed it upon Danish ladies in grateful acknowledgment of their having parted with their jewels to ransom him from the Vandals. For account of Dowers, see History of Dowers; Grote. —History of Greece 2, 112-13; Alexander. —History of Women; Lord Kames. —Sketch of the history of Man; Histoire des Morales des Femmes. In Denmark, King Sweinn Forkbeard was the first to give woman a share in her parents’ property. Saxo Grammaticus says, The king was taken prisoner by the Vinds who demanded so large a sum of money for his ransom, the men of Denmark would not pay it, so their king remained a prisoner. The women of Denmark sold their ornaments and ransomed him. From gratitude the king decreed that afterwards daughters should inherit one-third of their father’s property. Journal of Jurisprudence. One especial right belonged to wives among the Northmen; this was the custody of her husband’s keys, and if he refused them the wife could compel him by law to give her their possession. These were the keys of the store-room, chest, and cupboard.

486

The law of dower was less favorable to the wife in the 13th century than it became later.

487

See Reeves pp. 156-6.

488

Sheldon Amos. —Science of Law.

489

History of Women, 1779.

490

Higgins says the word widow comes from Vidya, to know.

491

Ancient Laws of Ireland, Sanchus Mor. pp. 347-51.

492

At a time when the English law of husband and wife, which now for three centuries, has been substituted for the Irish law in this country, has been condemned by a committee of the House of Commons, as unjust towards the wife, and when the most advanced of modern thinkers are trying to devise some plan by which wives may be placed in a position more nearly approaching to equality with the husband, it is interesting to discover in the much despised laws of the ancient Irish, the recognition of the principle on which efforts are being made to base our legislation on this subject. Preface to Sanchus Mor. Vol. 2.

493

Vol. 3, p. 35. —Ibid.

494

Rambles and Studies in Old South Wales.– Wirt Sikes.

495

The three peculiars of a women, are her cowyll, her gowyn, and her sarand; the reason these three are called three peculiars, is because they are the three properties of a woman and cannot be taken from her for any cause; her cowyll is what she receives for her maidenhood; her sarand is for every beating given her by her husband, except for three things; and those three for which she may be beaten are, for giving anything she ought not to give; for being detected with another man in a covert; and for wishing drivel on her husband’s beard; and if for being found with another man he chastises her, he is not to have any satisfaction beside that, for there ought not to be both satisfaction and vengeance for the same crime; her gowyn is, if she detect her husband with another woman, let him pay her six score pence for the first offense, for the second, one pound; if she detect him a third time she can separate from him without leaving anything that belongs to her. Aneurin Owen, Professor of Welsh Law.

496

The law enacts that she ought not to suffer loss on account of the man, since she received no benefit from him, and therefore he is to rear the child. Ancient Laws and Institutions of Wales.

497

The Welsh laws of Howell the Good were enacted by four laics and two clerks who were summoned lest the laws should ordain anything contrary to scripture. Ibid.

498

A woman cannot be admitted as surety or as a witness concerning man. Ibid.

499

Civil Code, Art 340.

500

The Woman Question in Europe.– T. Stanton. This law of France differs greatly from the old Welsh pre-christian law, which threw the support of an illegitimate child upon the father. Notwithstanding the responsibility thus thrown upon her, a French proverb declares that “the most reasonable woman never attains the sense of a boy of fourteen.”

501

It was no mere accident that the French language only possessed one word, l’homme, for man, and human being. French law only recognizes man as a human being. —August Bebel.

502

Legouve —History of Morals of Women.

503

The baby was born in the next house, and of course I was interested, how can one not be interested when one of these little angels becomes imprisoned in the earth form and begins a career that makes one tremble to think of? Meeting the father a few hours later I ask the customary question. “Another no account girl to be supported,” he said gloomily, and passed on. —Woman’s World. A father of experience spoke differently: “My gals never forget me. They married and went away to their own homes: and though they were none of them well-to-do, yet not one of them ever saw the time she wouldn’t steal a dollar from her husband to give to father or mother; but it isn’t so with the boys. They never knew they owed me anything; they never put their hands in their pockets for me; they never laid awake o’ nights thinking how to scrimp household expenses to get me or mother a present like the gals did. And yet when I was araisin’ ’em I thought one boy was worth a dozen gals.”

504

See Scandinavian Jurisprudence.

505

A story is told by an American traveller, of a party met upon the cars, the mother a delicate little personage, the father stout and strong. Upon leaving the train he walked off incommoded by a single traveling impedimenta, while the wife was almost hidden under the pack she was carrying. With indignation the American asked, “why do you not let the man take some of these things?” ‘What! and he the father of a family?’ was the surprised answer.

506

It is unnecessary to let the whole many-colored map of German common law pass in review; a few specimens will suffice. According to German common law woman is everywhere in the position of a minor with regard to man; her husband is her lord and master, to whom she owes obedience in marriage. If she be disobedient, Prussian law allows a husband of “low estate” to inflict moderate bodily chastisement. As no provision is made for the number or severity of the blows, the amount of such chastisement is left to the sovereign discretion of the man. In the communal law of Hamburg the regulation runs as follows: “The moderate chastisement of a wife by her husband is just and permissible.” Similar enactments exist in many parts of Germany. The Prussian common law further decrees that the husband can determine the length of time during which a woman must suckle her child. All decisions with regard to the children rest with the father. When he dies the wife is everywhere under the obligation of accepting a guardian for the children; she is decided to be under age, and incapable of conducting the education of children alone, even when their means of support are derived entirely from her property or her labor. Her fortune is managed by her husband, and in cases of bankruptcy is regarded in most states as his and disposed of accordingly, unless a special contract has been made before marriage. When landed property is entailed on the eldest child, a daughter has no rights, as long as husband or brothers are alive; she cannot succeed unless she has no brothers or has lost them by death. She cannot exercise the political rights which are as a rule connected with landed property, unless in some exceptional cases, as for instance in Saxony, where communal regulations in the country allow her to vote, but deny her the right of being elected. But even this right is transferred to her husband if she marry. In most states she is not free to conclude agreements without the consent of her husband, unless she be engaged in business on her own account, which recent legislation permits her to do. She is excluded from every kind of public activity. The Prussian law concerning societies, forbids school-boys and apprentices under eighteen, and women to take part in political associations and public meetings. Until within the last few years women were forbidden by various German codes to attend the public law courts as listeners. If a woman becomes pregnant of an illegitimate child she has no claim on support if she accepted any present from the father at the time of their intimacy. If a woman is divorced from her husband, she continues to bear his name in eternal memory of him, unless she happens to marry again.

August Bebel. —Woman in the Past, Present and Future.

507

Who, indeed, would not have been received by the queen.

508

A German girl continues to be a maid-of-all-work until circumstances elevate her to a higher position. She becomes a mother, and this opens a fresh career to her as an amme or wet nurse. Her lines thenceforward fall in pleasant places. An amme is a person of consideration. No disgrace or loss of character is attached to the irregularity of conduct which often is the origin of her promotion to a higher sphere. Her wages are quadrupled; her fare by comparison is sumptuous; she can never be scolded; she is called upon to fulfill but one duty. The occupation is so much more remunerative than ordinary service, that one can scarcely be surprised if plenty of women are found ready and willing to follow the trade. With them the child is only a means to an end. Marriage among the lower orders in Germany is cumbered about with so many restrictions and conditions, that it has come to be looked upon as almost an impossibility.

509

When Miss Aarta Hansteen, a Norwegian lady announced her purpose of lecturing on woman’s natural equality with man, she met little or no support, the church strenuously opposing on ground of woman’s original curse.

510

Translated into English under title of “Nora,” by Miss Frances Lord.

511

So profound was its effect that visiting invitations were coupled with the request not to speak of the work.

512

Marian Brown Shipley, an American lady, long a resident of Sweden and thoroughly conversant with its literature and tone of thought, said of it, “A more glorious thing has not been done in Sweden for centuries, Strindberg has defied church and state, striking both to their foundations with his merciless satire, and rallied the Swedish people at a single stroke.”

513

Bjornsen said, “The confiscating of August Strindberg’s book Giftas, is the greatest literary scandal in the North in my time. It is worse than when one wished to put me in the house of correction on account of the King; or thrust out Ibsen from the society of honorable people for gjengungerd (Ghosts).”

514

March 30, 1882.

515

Russian Revolt.

516

A Russian writer of the 17th century said: “As Eve did wrong, so the whole race of women become sinful and the cause of evil.”

517

She was spoken of as a “Vanity itself,” “A storm in the home,” “A flood that swells everything,” “A serpent nourished in the bosom,” “A spear penetrating the heart,” “A constantly flying arrow.”

518

Rural Life in Russia. – The Nineteenth Century.

519

See Chap. 4. p. 161.

520

I myself am the happy possessor of a little rude wooden bas-relief, framed and glazed, of two saints, whose names I have ungratefully forgotten, to whom if you pray as you go out to commit a crime, however heinous, you take your pardon with you. —Rural Life in Russia.

521

See Chap. 4. p. 182.

522

Reported by Mrs. Livermore.

523

Leavenworth Standard, Dec. 21, 1886.

524

Under common law a woman is classified with lunatics, idiots, infants and minors.

525

Milton’s oriental views of the function of women led him not only to neglect but to prevent the education of his daughters. They were sent to no school at all, but were handed over to a school mistress in the house. He would not allow them to learn any language, saying with a sneer that “for a woman one tongue is enough.” The miseries however that follow the selfish sacrifice of others is so sure to strike, that there needs no future world of punishment to adjust the balance. The time came when Milton would have given worlds that his daughters had learned the tongues. He was blind and could only get at his precious book – could only give expression to his precious verses through the eyes and hands of others. Whose hands and whose eyes so proper for this as his daughters? He proceeded to train them to read to him, parrot-like, in five or six languages which he (the schoolmaster) could at one time have easily taught them; but of which they now could not understand a word. He turned his daughters into reading machines. It is appalling to think of such a task. That Mary should revolt and at last after repeated contests with her taskmaster, learn to hate her father – that she should, when some one spoke in her presence of her father’s approaching marriage, make the dreadful speech that it was no news to hear of his wedding, but if she could hear of his death, that was something – is unutterably painful, but not surprising. —The Athenaeum.

526

The Church as It Is.– Parker Pillsbury, pp. 32-3-4-5-6.

527

Report of the Proceedings of the Missionary Conference. – Mr. Perkins’ speech.

528

The same hymns are sung, the same doctrine preached, the same necessity for salvation emphasized, and justification by faith is made the corner stone of redemption.