Title American child bride : a history of minors and marriage in the United States / Nicholas L. Syrett

Published Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2016] ©2016

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xiv, 354 pages) : illustrations Contents Introduction -- Any maid or woman child : a new nation and its marriage laws -- The child was to be his wife : patterns of youthful marriage in antebellum America -- Wholly unfit for the marriage condition : Parton v. Hervey and struggles over age of consent laws -- The great life-long mistake : women's rights advocates and the feminist critique of early marriage -- My little girl wife : the transformation of childhood and marriage in the late nineteenth century -- I did and I don't regret it : child marriage and the contestation of childhood, 1880-1925 -- Marriage reform is still an unplowed field : reformers target child marriage during the 1920s -- Marriage comes early in the mountains : the persistence of child marriage in the rural South -- Are they marrying too young? The teenage marriage "crisis" of the postwar years -- There was no stopping her : teen marriage continues in rural America -- Epilogue Summary Most in the United States likely associate the concept of the child bride with the mores and practices of the distant past. But Nicholas L. Syrett challenges this assumption in his sweeping and sometimes shocking history of youthful marriage in America. Focusing on young women and girls--the most common underage spouses--Syrett tracks the marital history of American minors from the colonial period to the present, chronicling the debates and moral panics related to these unions. Although the frequency of child marriages has declined since the early twentieth century, Syrett reveals that the practice was historically far more widespread in the United States than is commonly thought. It also continues to this day: current estimates indicate that 9 percent of living American women were married before turning eighteen. By examining the legal and social forces that have worked to curtail early marriage in America--including the efforts of women's rights activists, advocates for children's rights, and social workers--Syrett sheds new light on the American public's perceptions of young people marrying and the ways that individuals and communities challenged the complex legalities and cultural norms brought to the fore when underage citizens, by choice or coercion, became husband and wife Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-342) and index Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed September 8, 2016) Subject Age of consent -- United States -- History Child marriage -- Social aspects -- United States -- History Child marriage -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History Marriage customs and rites -- United States -- History Marriage law -- United States -- History POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Women's Studies. Age of consent Child marriage -- Law and legislation Marriage customs and rites Marriage law United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781469629544 1469629542 9781469629551 1469629550

  Permalink