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Introduction To At The Magistrate's Discretion: Sexual Crime And New England Law, 1636-1718, Abby Chandler
Introduction To At The Magistrate's Discretion: Sexual Crime And New England Law, 1636-1718, Abby Chandler
Abby Chandler
This dissertation is a comparative study of sexual crime trials in four New England jurisdictions: Essex County, Massachusetts, Plymouth Colony, The Province of Maine, and Rhode Island Colony. It argued that sexual crime trials could be used as a tool for studying the diverse and changing legal cultures of different regions within New England.
Whether morality or child support was under discussion, sexual intercourse outside of marriage threatened to disrupt the social and economic bounds of early modern society. Nevertheless, methods for addressing the issue varied widely in New England, depending on the jurisdiction in question. As a result, examining …