Brabbling Women: Disorderly Speech and the Law in Early Virginia

by Terri L. Snyder

Brabbling Women takes its title from a 1662 law enacted by Virginia's burgesses, which was intended to offer relief to the "poore husbands" forced into defamation suits because their "brabling" wives had slandered or scandalized their neighbors. To quell such episodes of female misrule, lawmakers decreed that husbands could choose either to pay damages or to have their wives publicly ducked.But there was more at stake here. By examining women's use of language, Terri L. Snyder demonstrates how women resisted and challenged oppressive political, legal, and cultural practices in colonial Virginia. Contending that women's voices are heard most clearly during episodes of crisis, Snyder focuses on disorderly speech to illustrate women's complex relationships to law and authority in the seventeenth century.Ordinary women, Snyder finds, employed a variety of strategies to prevail in domestic crises over sexual coercion and adultery, conflicts over women's status as servants or slaves, and threats to women's authority as independent household governors. Some women entered the political forum, openly participating as rebels or loyalists; others sought legal redress for their complaints. Wives protested the confines of marriage; unfree women spoke against masters and servitude. By the force of their words, all strove to thwart political leaders and local officials, as well as the power of husbands, masters, and neighbors. The tactics colonial women used, and the successes they met, reflect the struggles for empowerment taking place in defiance of the inequalities of the colonial period.

Genres: History

182 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Examining records of courts as well as the laws themselves, author Terri Snyder takes a look at women's attempts to stand up for themselves in seventeenth-century Virginia. Most cases focus on York County. Readers will understand women's legal status under a system of coverture. This academic work will not appeal to persons more interested in popular treatments of the subject.

[Michaela Corning-Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and helpful book that gives a glimpse into the world of marginalized folks during the late 17th century in what is now called America. Snyder gives a detailed view of the ways elite, middle class, unfree, and enslaved women shaped their narratives especially in court settings in order to achieve success in litigation. I appreciate especially how Snyder highlights the perseverance of these women in their attempts to obtain redress for crimes committed against them, and also how women used the system to their own benefit.
Emphasizing how women controlled their own narratives gives a sense of agency and resistance to persons we wouldn’t necessarily think to normally have such agency.
This book was also an extremely fast read (only five chapters long, ~20 pages per chapter), is well-organized, and informative. Because the author uses historical sources, this book is rooted in real events and speaks truth in its thesis. Would recommend for anyone interested in the topics of women and power in early American history.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author is obviously trying to prove a
feminist point of view. She is skewing an 18th Century world to fit a 21st century attitude. I feel as if I need to fact check her because she makes statements, in support of her feminist views, that I know are incorrect. I could not finish the book due to these obvious errors.