American History: Rights and Freedoms of Women in the 1600's In the early 1600's the British King made grants of charters were granted for settlements that were to become established colonies in the New World or America. By the 1700's 13 colonies had been established namely Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Rhode Island. The Constitution was not yet and Freedom not yet won and the rights of women varied from area to area.

This paper intends to explore what rights women possessed in the different areas of settlement in the early America as well as the difference of women's rights in other race and cultural groups in that time period. Further to understand what freedom was held by "Free Colonial Women" as well as what motivated the white and black women of that time to either declare themselves as Patriots or Loyalists.

Introduction:

In the early history of the United States women had very few, if any, rights. Men owned their wives as if they were property. Specifically, the white women of that day and time are the focus of this paper. However, in some of the colonies laws were changed and even created to grant more rights to women.

1. Similarities and Differences: Colonial Women in Chesapeake and New England Colonies of...

This act allowed for each to hold and express personal religious beliefs. This time is known as a golden age for the Colony.
The lives of women in the New England colony was quiet different for women. Women were the possessions of their husband and lived as his subordinate and complying with the issues of his authority even after reaching maturity. Any possession of the wife became the husband's upon marriage. Divorce was unheard of and not possible.

2. Differences in Role of Women: American Indians, Hispanics, Whites and Blacks in 1600's

Within the tribe of the Indians the women had "their own place" just as did the men and it was as valued and as honored a place as that held by a man. The men hunted and the women cultivated the crops. That was the way of the Indians to do each as they were best suited and for what best suited the survival of the tribe to which they belonged. It was normal within most tribes for women to assert their individualism even to the point of lesbianism and marriage to other women or choosing the life of a hunter and warrior instead of grower and gatherer. . In certain tribes women's family was the matriarchal family that ruled and…