The rote notes of early US law
Monday, August 12, 2013 - 07:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
In 1812, a Connecticut law student named Samuel Cheever summarized a lecture on "Baron and Feme," which were the legal terms for husband and wife. Toward the top, in Cheever's slanted script, is a sentence that seems chilling now: "The husband acquires an absolute right over all the property of the wife in possession, and her right is entirely destroyed."