It did not occur to any one that women would ever need special laws.

The Pilgrim Fathers and their successors, the Puritans, simply assumed that here, as in the England they had left behind, woman's place was in the home, where she was protected, supported, and controlled.
But in the new world woman's place in the home assumed an importance much greater than it had formerly possessed.

Labor was scarce, manufacturing and trading were undeveloped.

Woman's special activities were urgently needed.

Woman's hands helped to raise the roof-tree, her skill and industry, to a very large extent, furnished the house.