| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Stray Wives: Marital Conflict in Early National New England. By Mary Beth Sievens. (New York: New York University Press, 2005. xii, 169 pp. $42.00, ISBN 0-8147-4009-X.)

"Early national" here means 1790 to 1830, and "New England" is represented by Hartford County, Connecticut; Windsor County, Vermont; and occasionally all of Vermont. Mary Beth Sievens uses desertion notices in newspapers and divorce cases to explore the condition of married women in a period she characterizes as one of unusual economic and social change. Most of the notices were inserted by husbands as public warnings that they would no longer be responsible for their wives' debts. Many describe wives' ill behavior as reason for withdrawing their credit. A few notices came from women, mostly in defense of their character and actions. Sievens asks why so few wives responded to their husbands' notices. Her answer is that their audiences differed. Wives needed only to reassure their friends, kin, and neighbors, whereas husbands needed to alert existing and potential creditors beyond the immediate locale.

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