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“The Spirit of Contradiction”: Wife Abuse in New England, 1780–1820

In the early republic, abused wives’ petitions for divorce and suits for peace altered community standards regarding domestic abuse. Women’s activities forced society to confront the implications of violence during a time when cultural trends such as companionate marriage and sentimentalism made society receptive to their harrowing narratives. Studying wife abuse shows that women’s political activism was not declining in the early republic – instead, their activism centered on empowering them within the home. Ultimately, women’s combined activities chipped away at legal inequities and provided a crucial staging ground for the advancement of women’s rights.