d 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 Slan