“Husband and wife became one person-‘the very being and existence of the woman is suspended during the coverture, or entirely merged and incorporated in that of the husband.’ So as long as a woman was married, the law, at least in theory, virtually ignored her existence" (Spindel,1994, p. 155).
A married women in colonial North Carolina was a legal non-entity. Once married, she had virtually no legal rights. Her husband was the head of the household his decisions about the family were the final word. Any goods or property she might have possessed prior to her marriage by law became her husbands once married. "A married woman could not legally own property or claim her own earnings (all of which belonged to her husband), nor could she sue or be sued, have legal say over her children, or object to her husband's right to the "moderate correction" of his wife, children, and servants (which included the use of a whipping switch no bigger than the size of his thumb" (Fischer, 2002, p.17)
Among the wealthy, there are some instances of marriage contracts being used to afford women some protection for assets brought to the marriage. These were most often used by widows upon remarriage and were an attempt to provide inheritance for the children of the previous marriage. This are the rare exception, however.
It was nearly impossible to get a divorce in North Carolina (Watson, 1981, p.17). "If a wife needed to leave an abusive husband, she would have to apply for a legal separation. In her petition, she would have to find community members who would testify that she had done nothing to provoke her husband’s wrath and that she had always tried to be a submissive and obedient wife" (Wood, 2008) Owing to the lack of ability to divorce, abandonment by spouse was a common complaint in legal notices from newspapers of the day. Of particular concern to the married woman abandoned by her husband was the difficulty of continuing to run a household with no legal authority to enter into contracts or buy and sell property. If the woman was able to continue to run the farm or business to provide for her family, there was always a risk that her husband could return and claim assets and property earned in his absence.
Of the four groups of women examined, a married woman had the fewest legal rights in colonial North Carolina.