I found this on a web site and thought I would share it. Many have asked these questions. Women's Rights: In colonial Virginia a woman by marrying became "one body" with her husband (Matthew 19, verses 5-6). Together with "wives be subject to your husbands" (Ephesians 5, verses 22-24), these dictums were the basis of English law and continued as American law well into the 19th century. The result was that the rights of a married women were severely restricted, with certain exceptions, she was not allowed to own land in her own right nor to make a will. Any real property that she brought to a marriage automatically became her husbands, unless she had insisted on a prenuptial agreement signed before the marriage took place... Even after she was widowed and had received a life interest in a specific third of her late husband's land following a division of the estate made by court-appointed commissioners, she had no say as to whom it would pass after she was gone. She could not sue in a court of law other than by the same "next friend" procedure provided for minors and the mentally incompetent. She had no legal say over who would be the guardian of their minor children after her husband had died or what religion the would be raised in, if her husband's will had provisos to those effects. If her husband had been too poor to assure that she and her children were not gong to become a public charge, she had no power to prevent the children from being taken away from her and bound out to a stranger. Only if a woman was an adult and unmarried, either as a widow or never a bride, could she sue in court, act as an executrix or administratrix, be officially designated as the guardian of her children, enter into contracts including indenture of servants, own slaves, sell or buy land, or obtain an ordinary license. If a servant, shoe could take direct court action against her master for ill treatment or his not abiding by the terms of the indenture. Whether or not she was married, she could witness documents and testify freely in court about them. Obviously she couldn't vote, serve on a jury, or hold any public office. Servants: Per 1705 law children imported to the Colony were to be brought to court by their masters within to have their ages judged. If they did not have an indenture and were over 19, they were to serve only 5 years, and if under 19, only until they were 24. If their age had not been officially adjudged, they would serve only five years. Freedom dues given on completion of servitude were fixed at "10 bushels Indian Corn, 30 shillings in money or goods, one well fixed musket or fusee of the value of at least 20 shillings." Women were to receive 15 bushels of corn and 40 shillings.