An engaging and comprehensive study of property-owning women in the colony of Tidewater, VA during the 16th century. It examines the social restrictions on women's behaviour and speech, opportunities and difficulties these women encountered in the legal system, the economic and discretionary authority they enjoyed, the roles they played in the family business, their roles in the later, Trans-Atlantic trading framework, and the imperial context within which these colonial women lived, making this a welcome addition to both colonial and women's history historians.

An engaging and comprehensive study of property-owning women in the colony of Tidewater, VA during the 16th century. It examines the social restrictions on women's behaviour and speech, opportunities and difficulties these women encountered in the legal system, the economic and discretionary authority they enjoyed, the roles they played in the family business, their roles in the later, Trans-Atlantic trading framework, and the imperial context within which these colonial women lived, making this a welcome addition to both colonial and women's history historians.