Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/146

 she had any such property, passed to the control of her husband unless reserved to her by a solemn pre-nuptial contract. The husband could take and use the rents and profits for his own ends; he could dispose of her interests without her consent; if he committed waste, she had no action against him; if he ran into debt, the estate could be sold for the benefit of his creditors. The woman's personal property—money, notes, bonds, jewels, and movables in general—became also her husband's to hold, use, sell, assign, or consume at his pleasure. "So great a favorite," wrote the learned and genial Blackstone, "is the female sex of the laws of England." So thoroughly were these high doctrines incorporated into American colonial law that two hundred years after the landing of the Pilgrims the American jurist and commentator, James Kent, had only to enumerate them and add a few slight variations to portray the legal rules of domestic relations then in force in the United States. Akin to the command of the husband over his wife was the authority of the father over his children, a strict control over the labor and services of his sons and daughters until they reached maturity, subject to little or no interference from the state.

Coupled with these privileges and preëminences, however, were many duties specified in the law of the family. The head of the house had to discharge his wife's debts incurred either before marriage or during wedded life for the ordinary purchase of goods. He was bound to maintain her by supplying the comforts and necessaries appropriate to his fortune and condition. He was liable for torts and frauds committed by his wife; where imprisonment was the penalty imposed he could be sent to jail for her misdeeds. Moreover, he was required to support his children until they became of age, if the state of his income admitted; and under the laws of some colonies he was ordered to give them the rudiments of education. As a matter of fact, the Massachusetts act establishing a limited compulsory education may be regarded as the entering