American women were second-class citizens in the early 19th century. They possessed few to no political or legal rights, and because married women were legally considered to be their husband’s property, they had even fewer rights than single women. The attitudes and practices regarding women’s status and roles came from England. Sir William Blackstone, an English jurist and legal scholar, famously wrote, “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs everything.”