women may hold any office under the school law. In Massachusetts, the office of overseer of the poor may be held by a woman.

At common law, a married woman, however, had in general no capacity to contract, and hence could not engage in business or follow an independent vocation; but the common law disabilities, imposed upon married women, have been very generally removed by statutes. In Louisiana and North Carolina, however, the contracts of a married woman are declared to be generally void, and so says a statute of Georgia, which seems, however, to be overruled by constitutional provision, as judicially construed. In Alabama and New Mexico a married woman may contract, provided she have her hus band's assent, and in certain cases this is allowed in Louisiana. In Illinois a wife may make all kinds of contracts, except that she may not enter into a partnership without her husband's consent, and in South Carolina it is held that the law does not empower a married woman to enter into a partnership. But in most of the States, a married woman may as a general rule make all kinds of contracts as if she were unmarried. În Mississippi, Oregon, and Washington, all the civil disabilities peculiar to married women, except as to voting and holding office, have been expressly swept away. In about a dozen States there is a certain process, such as recording a certificate, etc., by which a married woman can become a "sole trader," or carry on business in her own name; but in as many other States she can do this without any formalities. In all the States, the real property of a woman, and in most of the States her personal property, upon her marriage, remain her separate property; and so generally remains all property acquired by the wife after marriage; and over this separate property a married woman has now, in nearly all the States, more or less complete control. Louisiana, however, is peculiarly conservative in this respect, and in Texas, Florida, and Idaho, the husband has the management and control of all the wife's separate property. The property claimed by married women must, by the laws of several States, be specially registered. In many States a married woman can convey her own real estate, without her husband joining in the conveyance; but in a narrow majority of the States the husband must, as a rule, join with the wife to make a valid transfer. In most of the States a married woman may prosecute or defend suits concerning her own property, as if unmarried; and in about half of the States she may in all cases sue and be sued without joining the husband. As a prevailing rule, the husband is not liable for the debts of the wife, except those incurred for necessaries for herself or the family, nor is he now liable for her torts; neither is the wife's property liable for the debts of the husband, but her own debts may be enforced against her own property. In many States contracts between husband and wife are now valid, though in some States they are still void at law.

Married women have, as a rule, the same right to dispose of their property by last will and testament as they have to convey it during their life-time; but in some States, as Maryland, their right so to do is restricted in certain respects. In many States a wife cannot by her will deprive her husband of a certain share of her property. The laws of descent and of intestate suecession vary diversely in the several States. In Tennessee it is expressly provided that absolute equality shall be observed in the division of estates of deceased persons dying intestate, and no difference of sex is known in the laws of succession in North Carolina and Louisiana. In many States the distributive shares of husband and widow, and their respective rights of curtesy and dower, are similar; but in other States there are complicated differences; in New York, for instance, the husband being favored with respect to personal property, and the wife being better protected with regard

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to real estate. In Louisiana women are declared incapable of being witnesses to wills.

The laws of California, the Dakotas, Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, and Idaho expressly enact that the husband is the head of the family, and that the wife is subject to him. The constitution of Kansas, however, declares that the legislature shall provide for women equal rights with the husband in the possession of their children. Such equality is also provided by the laws of Washington. In Maine, California, the Dakotas, and Georgia, the father is declared to have the right to the custody of his minor child. In Louisiana, in case of difference between the parents, the authority of the father prevails. The common law authority of the husband and father is, with modifications, upheld in most of the States, at least until abandonment, separation, or divorce.

The duty of the husband at common law to support the wife finds further statutory recognition in acts making the husband's failure to support the wife cause for absolute or limited divorce. Alimony is usually granted to the wife on a divorce for the husband's fault. In North Carolina, Kentucky, and Texas, divorce is granted for adultery only when committed by the wife, unless the husband abandon the wife and live in adultery with another woman. While women, and particularly married women, still in the world of activity, often labor under disabilities imposed upon them by law for their protection and benefit-"so great a favorite is the female sex of the laws of England"—it must be admitted that in the course of a century woman has made a great advance in the direction of personal freedom. When Blackstone wrote, the husband became entitled by marriage to all the personal property of the wife, and to the rents and profits of her lands, and the very being or legal existence of the woman was suspended during marriage, or at least was incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband, under whose wing, protection, and cover she performed everything. The emancipation of married women has been gradually, silently, successfully accomplished.-ED.

APPENDIX F.-BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The following works will be found useful by those who wish to pursue further the subjects treated in the foregoing chapters.

ADAMS, OSCAR FAY

Handbook of American Authors. Boston, 1884. BOONE, RICHARD G.

Education in the United States. New York, 1889.

BRACKETT, ANNA C. AND OTHERS

Education of American Girls. New York, 1886.

CAMPBELL, HELEN

Prisoners of Poverty. Boston, 1887.
Anne Bradstreet. Boston, 1891.

CLARKE, E. H.

Sex in Education. Boston, 1873.

DALL, CAROLINE H.

Life of Dr. Marie Zakrzewska; a Practical Illustration of Woman's
Right to Labor.

Boston.

Women of the American Revolution. Philadelphia, 1853.

ENGLES, FREDERICK

Condition of the Working Classes in England in 1844. Translated by Florence Kelly Wischnewetsky. New York, 1887.

GREELEY, HORACE

Recollections of a Busy Life. New York, 1867.

GRISWOLD, R. W.

Female Poets of America. New York, 1849.

D'HERICOURT, MME.

La Femme Affranchie. Paris..

HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH

Common Sense about Women. Boston, 1882.
Women and Men. New York, 1887.

HOWE, JULIA WARD AND OTHERS
Sex and Education. Boston, 1874.

JACKSON, HELEN HUNT (“H. H.")

A Century of Dishonor. New York, 1881. JACKSON, SHELDON, D.D.

Alaska. New York, 1880.

ARCOM, LUCY

The Story of a New England Girlhood. Boston, 1889. LEAKE, GENERAL G. B.

Think and Act: Men and Women: Work and Wages. Philadelphia, 1868.

REPORT OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN HELD IN WASHINGTON, D. C., 1888. Washington, 1888.

RIGGS, REV. STEPHEN R., D.D.

Mary and I. Chicago, 1880.

ROBINSON, H. H.ʻ

Massachusetts in Woman Suffrage Movement. Boston, 1881. SEDGWICK, C. M.

Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home. New York, 1841. SIMS, MARION

Story of My Life. New York, 1884.

STANTON, THEODORE

The Woman Question in Europe. New York, 1884.

STEDMAN, E. C.

Poets of America. Boston, 1885.

STEDMAN, E. C. AND HUTCHINSON, E. M.

Library of American Literature. New York, 1887-1890.

TIFFANY, REV.

Life of Dorothea Dix. Boston, 1889. WILLARD, FRANCES E.

Autobiography.

WOLLSTONECRAFT

The Rights of Women. Boston, 1890.

INDEX.

Abolitionists, character of, 261. | Bar Associations, woman's inter-

Affiliated college, the, 41, note, 42,
note. See Collegiate instruction
for women; Evelyn College; Bar-Bascom, John, quoted on coed-

American Revolution, woman in, Blackwell, Rev. Antoinette Brown,

Anti-Slavery women, Work of, 392 Blackwell, Emily, 149, 152, 154.