WOMEN AND THE

POOR LAWS IN
COLONIAL AMERICA
Video Presentation Submitted by:
Gina Grasto, Demar McClain,
Michael Starks and Bea Turner
THE WOMEN AND POOR
LAWS
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White Women
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Deserving Poor (White
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Men, Women & Children)

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Undeserving Poor
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(White Men, Women and Children)

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Freed Black Slaves

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(Men and Women)

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Indentured Black Slaves

(Men, Women and Children)
 MARRIAGES IN COLONIAL AMERICA
•White men were encouraged to marry white women, single persons to live
with stable families and divorced men and women were strongly
encouraged to re-marry or risk a fine (Abramovitz, 94).

•Never married single women were seen as insurgents to the patriarchal

society of the colonial times as well as potential financial burdens.

•Men deserting their wives were common among the poor, so not to become
a public financial inconvenience, laws allowed women to remarry after their
husbands failed to re-emerge within 3 years.

•Henderson states, "Divorced men remarry much more often than divorced
women do and part of their quick economic rebound has to do with the
added incomes from their new spouses. But even men who don't remarry
recover financially within five years of divorce because of the higher salaries
males typically receive." (1)
RAISING CHILDREN IN
COLONIAL AMERICA

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PATERNITY LAWS OF COLONIAL
AMERICA

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 Questions for
Group Discussion
WOMEN AND POOR LAWS
Abramowitz discussed the qualifications
that were deemed relevant to gaining
access to welfare during the earliest days
of the United States of America. How
does the stigmatization of the indigent
apply today and what similarities can be
traced back to the colonial days as
discussed by Abramowitz?
 WOMEN AND POOR LAWS
Given the overwhelming longevity and
systemic persistence of social and
economic inequality between men and
women in U.S. societal practices, what are
some of the key reasons expressed in the
readings that champion an immediate
need for change concerning this
devastating issue?
 WOMEN AND POOR LAWS
U.S. History has shown to have always leaned in
favor of the personal security of WASP male
through a patriarchal view since the creation of
the country. What can be done to revolutionize
this fundamentally flawed and biased approach
of thinking when it comes to our country’s ever
changing individual, familial, and social
dynamics that leave women and other minorities
economically destitute while struggling to make
ends meet?
 References

Abramovitz, M. (1988). Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy form Colonial Times to the Present. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Brown, N. (2009). History, law & policy for a foundation for health care delivery for Australian indigenous children . Journal of the Pediatrics Clinics of
North America, 56(6), 1561-1576. DOI:10.1016/j.pcl.2009.10.002

Dinitto, D. (2007). Social Welfare: Politics and Public Policy (6 th Ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Rosen, D. (2003).Women and Property across Colonial America: A Comparison of Legal Systems in New Mexico and New York. William and Mary
Quarterly, 60(2), 355-381. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/pss/3491767

Trattner, W.I. (1999). From Poor Law to Welfare State: A History of Social Welfare in America (6 th Ed.). New York, New York: Free Press.