rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    non sort: The
    title: common law in colonial America
  name:
    name part: Nelson, William E. (William Edward)
    name part: 1940-
    role:
      role term: creator
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: nyu
    date issued: 2008
    date issued: 9999
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: volumes ; 24 cm.
  abstract: William E. Nelson here proposes a new beginning in the study of colonial legal history. Examining all archival legal material for the period 1607-1776 and synthesizing existing scholarship in a four-volume series, The Common Law in Colonial America shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, initially established in response to divergent political, economic and religious initiatives, slowly converged into a common American legal order that differed substantially from English common law. Drawing on groundbreaking and overwhelmingly in-depth research into local court records and statutes, the first volume explores how the law of the Chesapeake colonies, Virginia and Maryland, diverged sharply from the New England colonies, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth and Rhode Island, and traces the roots of these dissimilarities from their initial settlement until approximately 1660. Nelson pointedly examines the disparate motives of the legal systems in the respective colonies as they dealt with religion, price and labor regulations, crimes, public morals, the status of women and the enforcement of contractual obligations. He reveals how Virginians' zeal for profit led to a harsh legal framework that efficiently squeezed payment out of debtors and labor out of servants, whereas the laws of Massachusetts were primarily concerned with the preservation of local autonomy and the moral values of family-centered farming communities. The law in the other New England colonies, Nelson argues, gravitated towards the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law, gravitated toward that of Virginia. Comprehensive, authoritative and extensively researched, The Common Law in Colonial America, Volume 1: The Chesapeake and New England, 1607-1660 is the definitive resource on the beginnings of the common law and its evolution during this vibrant era in America's history.
  table of contents: v. 1. The Chesapeake and New England, 1607-1660 -- v. 2. The middle colonies and the Carolinas, 1660-1730.
  note: William E. Nelson.
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    geographic code: n-us---
  subject:
    topic: Law
    geographic: United States
    topic: History
  subject:
    geographic: United States
    topic: History
    temporal: Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
  classification: KF361 .N45 2008
  classification: 349.7309/031
  identifier: 0195327284 (v. 1 : alk. paper)
  identifier: 9780195327281 (v. 1 : alk. paper)
  identifier: 9780199937752 (v. 2 : alk. paper)
  identifier: 0199937753 (v. 2 : alk. paper)
  identifier: 2007044063
  identifier: http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip083/2007044063.html
  related item:
    location:
      url: http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip083/2007044063.html
  record info:
    record content source: DLC
    record creation date: 071024
    record change date: 20180310063219.0
    record identifier: in00002408939