A man could, also, devise property to his wife by will.  Often this was done, but too often the sons were made heirs, and the wife was left to what tender mercies they owned.  If a man died intestate the wife merely shared with other heirs.  She had no preference.

Under the old English common law, moreover, not only the property, but also the services of a married woman belonged to her husband.  If he chose to rent out her services, or if she offered to work outside the home, it followed logically that her wages belonged to him.  What use had she for wages?

On the other hand, every man was held responsible for the support of his wife.  He was responsible for her debts, as long as they were the necessities of life.  He was also responsible for her conduct.  Being propertyless, she could not be held to account for wrongs committed.  If she stole, or destroyed property, or injured the person of another, if she committed any kind of a misdemeanor in the presence of her husband, and that also meant if he were in her neighborhood at the time, the law held him responsible.  He should have restrained her.

This was supposed to be a decided advantage to the woman.  Whenever a rebellious woman or group of women voiced their objection to the system which robbed them of every shred of independence they were always reminded that the system at the same time relieved them of every shred of responsibility, even, to an extent, of moral responsibility.  “So great a favorite,” comments Blackstone, “is the female sex under the laws of England.”

You may well imagine that, in these circumstances, husbands were interested that their wives should be very good.  The law supported them by permitting “moderate correction.”  A married woman might be kept in what Blackstone calls “reasonable restraint” by her husband.  But only with a stick no larger than his thumb.

The husbandly stick was never imported into the United States.  Even the dour Puritans forbade its use.  The very first modification of the English common law, in its application to American women, was made in 1650, when the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony decreed that a husband beating his wife, or, for that matter, a wife beating her husband, should be fined ten pounds, or endure a public whipping.

The Pilgrim Fathers and the other early colonists in America brought with them the system of English common law under which they and their ancestors had for centuries been governed.  From time to time, as conditions made them necessary, new laws were enacted and put into force.  In all cases not specifically covered by these new laws, the old English common law was applied.  It did not occur to any one that women would ever need special laws.  The Pilgrim Fathers and their successors, the Puritans, simply assumed that here, as in the England they had left behind, woman’s place was in the home, where she was protected, supported, and controlled.