Coverture is a fundamental reality of the lives of early American women. It comes up in every episode of the American Revolution series, and in much of English history, so it's worth an explanation.

Coverture is a legal doctrine the colonies inherited from British common law, under which a married couple formed "one person in law" – and that person was really the husband. On her wedding day, a woman went from feme sole (a legal status equivalent to a man's) to feme covert or covered. (Note: British courts used "law French", a hangover from the Norman invasion in the 11th century. Coverture itself was probably derived from old Norman tradition.) The bride suddenly had no independent legal existence. Any property she brought into the marriage or any she acquired thereafter became her husband's property. Her earnings were not her own. She could not bring suits, enter contracts or write a legally binding will. She had no right to the custody of her children in case of divorce or separation. Rape was usually not a crime against her, but against her husband's rights, so marital rape could not exist. It's the laws of coverture that brought John Stuart Mill to write in 1869, "There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house."

In exchange, a husband was expected to protect and provide for his wife. Coverture had minor benefits: married women could not be sued in their own name or charged with minor infractions, though they retained liability for serious crimes. A widow also had dower rights. Property did not revert to her, but she had use of and a lifetime income from typically a third of her late husband's estate. Grief notwithstanding, widowhood was the most enviable state for a woman – the respectability of having been married and the autonomy of a feme sole. There were few incentives to get remarried as long as you could provide for yourself and any remaining children.

Because of coverture, American and British women had far fewer freedoms than indigenous or Spanish women in North America. Coverture was only undone in the United States in the late 19th century. Of course, lived realities differed. Partners navigated this legal landscape together, and many women asserted more autonomy than the law strictly allowed. The lives of Abigail and John Adams is a good example of how law and reality were negotiated. Not every husband was a tyrant – but they all had the legal right to be.