Feminism and the Law

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 16 Jun 2003, Baker, John wrote:

>         It is sometimes said that in the view of Blackstone (the 18th
> century jurist who set out the classic view of the common law), in the
> common law the husband and the wife were one, and the husband was the
> one.  I believe that this quotation (or at least the inflammatory later
> portion of it) does not occur in Blackstone.  I have come across what
> may be its source, a 1928 opinion by a federal judge in Tennessee:

I have long been interested in this quotation, and welcome any information
about it.  I think it's much older than 1928.  The New Beacon Book of
Quotations by Women has the following:

The Law has made the man and wife one person, and that one person the
husband!
        Lucretia Mott (1853), in Dana Greene, ed., _Lucretia Mott_ (1980)

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------