Project History - emilyhboyer/Signed-Sealed-Delivered GitHub Wiki

How Signed, Sealed, and Delivered Got Started

This project began during my first year, second semester (Spring 2024) course "HIST7314: Research Seminar: World History," or rather "Global Legal History." The final project for this course was open ended, with the only real parameters being that the final assignment (a 15-20 page paper) center around a legal argument, case, event, or debate of our choosing. My final paper "Privilege, Property, and Probates: The Legal Standing and Economic Conditions of White Women in Colonial Maryland, 1632-1777," explored the debate surrounding whether (white) British women or women in colonial Maryland had more of an economic advantage during the early to mid 17th century through the year 1777, when the United States officially declared independence. To read this paper, click here.

I argued that what all of these historians fail to consider is how dowries greatly varied from Britain to colonial America because of the fact that enslaved individuals made up a number of young women's dowries, especially in Maryland, where enslaved labor increased as tobacco production ramped up, especially during the early to mid 18th century. Historians such as Marlynn briefly touch upon this subject, such as Salmon's cited case of a woman named Hopewell Hebb, who Salmon states favored certain children over the other in her final will because of how her estate was divided up (to which Salmon is implying was uneven).

When I looked more closely at Hopewell's probate and her children, what I found was not a case of favoritism, but rather a strategic division of assets that helped to protect her unmarried children and set them up for financial success in terms of establishing a strong dowry, which would be sure to attract a husband in such a volatile climate. This is especially true when looking at the case of Hopewell Hebb, where she in fact bequeaths her youngest, unmarried daughters a larger sum of her estate -and in the form of enslaved individuals- showing that it was perhaps not favoritism, but in fact insured protection for her most vulnerable children.

I am interested in seeing how women fared in probate records during the 17th and 18th centuries, from land accumulation to the promise of horses, their increase, livestock, and tobacco. But I am especially interest in looking at enslaved individuals as present in these records, their movements, and seeing if my theory -that unmarried daughters "inherit" enslaved individuals at a larger rate than their brothers or older siblings- is true.

Personal Disclaimer

This project started by investigating the probate records of my own family members, who settled in St. Mary's County, MD in the mid-17th century. While their records have not been encoded thus far, this will appear. While I do not think that this information will impact the encoding process, I feel that it is important to state that I do have a personal and vested interested in these articles. When these probate records do appear, I will note them below.