Opening the book…
Learning Objectives
- Define the basic legal distinctions of Feme Covert and Feme Sole under English Common Law.
- Recognize the legal distinction between free and indentured women.
Legal Powers
Although there are many different groups of women living in the British colonies of North America, all ultimately fall under the authority of the British government, which used English Common Law for its authority over women and family life. English Common Law was a largely unwritten collection of laws and traditions based upon Old and New Testament teachings and Old Roman and English laws. All English women, with few exceptions, fell under one of two legal distinctions, Feme Sole or Feme Covert, which defined their legal rights and social status both in England and its colonies.
FemeSole
Feme Sole is a Latin term meaning “woman alone,” which refers to single women. During the Colonial period, typical Feme Sole included widows without adult male children and adult women without a father, brother, or uncle. In these cases, women were allowed to operate their own personal businesses or farms and have legal access to the courts, essentially holding the same legal rights as a man. Feme Sole held the advantage of self-determination and was not required to defer to any man to make decisions regarding her life.
While these women were able to have full control over their lives under the law, they lacked male protection, which could have devastating results. Many of the women accused of witchcraft, for example, were Feme Sole. Some women became Feme Sole because there were no males to inherit property upon their father’s death, thus becoming potentially powerful property owners. The potential to wield power equal to that of a male was viewed by many in the colonies as an upset to traditional gender roles and often made the Feme Sole a target for gossip, character assassination, and even witchcraft accusation. Without male protection, such a woman would be at a serious disadvantage, regardless of her personal wealth.
Feme Covert
Feme Covert is a Latin term meaning “woman covered,” which refers to any woman who is under the legal “cover” or protection of a male relative. The most obvious example of Feme Covert is a married woman, but this distinction includes any woman with a living male relative, such as a father or grandfather, brother, uncle, even adult son or son-in-law. Under English Common Law, women were considered the quasi-property of her husband or father, or a male relative who took responsibility for her, and were therefore subject to his rule but also his protection. This legal distinction is supported by the Judeo-Christian and Western European patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal traditions.
Feme Covert could not own or control property or a business in her own name and had no legal access to the court system. If a crime was committed against a married woman, for example, it was actually considered a crime against her husband and it would be he who brought the complaint or charges to court.
A widow would remain in Feme Covert status if she had an adult son, who would be required by law to care for and protect his mother upon the death of his father. English Common Law required that a son provide for his mother, giving her what was referred to as a “widow’s share” for her personal support. A “widow’s share” could be as large as a cash allowance and her own estate or as small as a corner within the home, depending upon the financial situation of her son.
In conclusion, within Colonial law, a woman’s entire life was dependent upon her male relatives. Her father, brother, or uncle saw to her education and arranged her marriage, her husband was her representation outside of the home and her sole support, and her son cared for her in her old age. Without a male relative’s protection and care, a colonial woman could be viewed as morally suspect and a threat to society. Whether legally distinguished as Feme Sole or Feme Covert, Colonial women wielded little power in the public sphere due to the patriarchal nature of English Common Law.
IndenturedServitude–Neither Covert nor Sole
English Common Law had allowed indentured servitude for several centuries before the founding of Jamestown, so it is logical that the system would be used in the English colonies. Indentured servants were typically poor people who had fallen into debt that they were unable to repay, therefore they were required to work off the debt, or sell their children to work off the debt. Debtor’s prisons were commonplace in England and many poor English men and women chose to travel to the Americas to work off their debt because they were promised a better life once their debts were paid. English men signed a contract for typically 4-5 years, after which time they were considered free men and were entitled to 50 acres of land, a suit of clothes, and a barrel of corn meal, although freedom dues could vary from colony to colony. English women’s contract was longer, typically 7 years, after which time they were freed but did not receive any freedom dues. Instead, they could typically expect to be married very quickly due to the lack of women living in the colonies. In Virginia, for example, there were more than 10 men to every woman living in the colony. Therefore, an English woman could expect to be married soon after her contract ended, thus entering into Feme Covert status.
Female indentured servants theoretically entered into their contract of their own free will, which indicates that they were Feme Sole, but many were actually sold by their fathers or brothers into servitude in the colonies in order to pay the family’s debt. Ship’s manifests of the 1600s indicated that as many as 75% of the women who arrived in Virginia were indentured servants, although many were classified as prostitutes simply because they were traveling alone. Others were “tobacco brides,” mail order brides paid for with tobacco rather than money. These women often had no choice who they married, the arrangement was made by family members, and typically had not met the man before arriving.
Indentured contracts were legally binding for both parties and could be changed or ended if one party broke the contract. For women, this often occurred due to pregnancy, which extended the contract for one year to make up for the loss of labor during the pregnancy and early months of child rearing. After the child was weaned, it would be sold into indentured servitude until its 21 birthday. However, women who were raped during their indenture, particularly by their owners, had legal recourse and could be freed from their contract. Early Virginia court cases indicate that at least a few women sued their owners for rape and won not only their case but their freedom and the freedom of their child, if a pregnancy had resulted from the rape. This indicates that female indentured servants operated as Feme Sole, with access to the courts. On the other hand, if the woman was raped by a man who was not her owner, it was considered a crime against her owner, which indicates Feme Covert as the woman was under the legal cover of her owner, and the rapist was required to pay damages.
Conclusion
English law was not always written down, but it was recognized by society and by courts both in England and its colonies. Not only would it dominate the Colonial period, English law influenced the development of law in the United States until modern times. Regardless of a woman’s country of origin, once she arrived in an area controlled by England, she fell under English law, which defined her by her marital status and condition of servitude.
Question to Consider
Which legal distinction do you think most colonial women preferred, Feme Sole or Feme Covert, and why?
This page titled 2.1: Women Under English Law was last modified on Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:04:43 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rene Miller Paredes via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.
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