Date of Award

Fall 1998

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Director

Jane T. Merritt

Committee Member

Carolyn J. Lawes

Committee Member

Lorraine Lees

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.H47 O83

Abstract

The court and its justices exerted a great deal of control and power over all the people of eighteenth-century Augusta County, Virginia. The justices oversaw the economic life of the county. They also arbitrated in civil matters and punished those convicted of crimes. The court exerted its authority most heavily over the less powerful of Augusta County society, its women, children, and servants. The justices' control of these people was based upon considerations of economic values and the justices' own prestige and power in the community. The women, children, and servants, in turn, used the court system to regain some amount of power over their own lives. Women came into court to request business licenses, document land transactions, ask to be appointed as administrators and executors of estates, petition for relief from abusive husbands, or to protect children. Children used the court to protect themselves &om abusive masters or to request guardians. Servants used the court to complain about abusive masters, request freedom dues, or draw up agreements between themselves and masters. Records used will consist of the court order books and will books of Augusta County, from 1745 through 1779.

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DOI

10.25777/ckck-4506

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