N. Gundersen, Joan R. “Independence, Citizenship, and the American Revolution.” Signs, vol. 13, no. 1, 1987, pp. 59–77. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3174027. “Independence, Citizenship, and the American Revolution” “Single women had the independence of mind and property to qualify as voters, but except in New Jersey, the American revolutionary leadership failed to recognize this. New Jersey provides a single example during the Revolutionary era of a state where women were included in the body politic. Women had a constitutionally protected right to vote in New Jersey from 1776 to 1807” (Gundersen 65). “In 1796, the legislature excluded black men and women from voting but reaffirmed white women’s right to vote, using the phrase ‘he or she.’
In order to qualify to vote, a woman had to be a property holder and thus independent” (Gundersen 66). Women were considered dependent on British loyalty oaths, but a widow or spinster’s choice of allegiance was independent. Each state had to decide if women in this scenario were dependent. Before the Revolution, a woman was a legal dependent. However, there were other aspects of a woman’s status, including duties, rights, and privileges. The land was an important part of a woman’s dowry; when her husband died, the land would be passed down to her male heirs. She also had partial ownership of personal property if the family declared bankruptcy or when her husband died. Equity provisions were another part of a women’s dependent status prior to the Revolution.
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The Changing Roles of Women in the American Revolution
Equity provisions helped married women be independent in a legal sense. Women were citizens of the new U.S. government, and they had independent choices while staying in the same dependent status (67 & 72). It was common for a husband and wife to stand on opposite sides of the Revolution. This caused multiple property and dependency issues. Each state government had to decide which situations determined the ownership of property and how a woman who stayed home fit into a society ruled by men. Most women married between eighteen and twenty-one years old. In many cases, a woman would engage in premarital for her significant other to determine if she could produce his heirs. This made her closer to becoming a wife.
As a wife, her status is dependent on her husband. Prenuptials were common women who could have “separate independent estates during marriage” (Gundersen 72). However, they did not receive economic independence from this. Legally a wife is dependent on her husband. While a widow was independent legally. Women became leaders while their husbands fought in the war; some petitioned the state for economic support to survive. The dependent poor increased during the Revolution; families struggled to make ends meet without fathers and brothers home to work. Men were independent; they had the right to vote, own property and gain the benefits of liberty. Women were dependent, couldn’t vote because men brought them to the polls, and couldn’t own property.