Chapter 6

I. New England Weddings--Lack of Ceremony and Merrymaking--Freedom of Choice for Women--The Parents' Permission--Evidence from Sewall--Penalty for Toying with the Heart--The Dowry.

II. Judge Sewall's Courtships--Independence of Colonial Women--Sewall and Madam Winthrop--His Friends' Urgings--His Marriage to Mrs. Tilley--Madam Winthrop's Hard-Hearted Manner--Sewall Looks Elsewhere for a Wife--Success Again.

III. Liberty to Choose--Eliza Pinckney's Letter on the Matter--Betty Sewall's Rejection of Lovers.

IV. The Banns and the Ceremony--Banns Required in Nearly all Colonies--Prejudice against the Service of Preachers--Sewall's Descriptions of Weddings--Sewall's Efforts to Prevent Preachers from Officiating--Refreshments at Weddings--Increase in Hilarity.

V. Matrimonial Restrictions--Reasons for Them--Frequency of Bigamy--Monthly Fines--Marriage with Relatives.

VI. Spinsters--Youthful Marriages--Bachelors and Spinsters Viewed with Suspicion--Fate of Old Maids--Description of a Boston Spinster.

VII. Separation and Divorce--Rarity of Them--Separation in Sewall's Family--Its Tragedy and Comedy.

VIII. Marriage in Pennsylvania--Approach Toward Laxness--Ben Franklin's Marriage--Quaker Marriages--Strange Mating among Moravians--Dutch Marriages.

IX. Marriage in the South--Church Service Required by Public Sentiment--Merrymaking--Buying Wives--Indented Servants--John Hammond's Account of Them.

X. Romance in Marriage--Benedict Arnold's Proposal--Hamilton's Opinion of His "Betty"--The Charming Romance of Agnes Surrage.

XI. Feminine Independence--Treason at the Tongue's End--Independence of the Schuyler Girls.

XII. Matrimonial Advice--Jane Turell's Advice to Herself.

XIII. Matrimonial Irregularities--Frequency of Them--Cause of Such Troubles--Winthrop's Records of Cases--Death as a Penalty--Law against Marriage of Relatives--No Discrimination in Punishment because of Sex--Sewall's Accounts of Executions--Use of the Scarlet Letter--Records by Howard--Custom of Bundling--Its Origin--Adultery between Indented White Women and Negroes--Punishment in Virginia--Instances of the Social Evil in New England--Less Shame among Colonial Men.

XIV. Violent Speech and Action--Rebellious Speech against the Church--Amazonian Wives--Citations from Court Records--Punishment for Slander.