Privy examination
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A privy examination was an American legal practice in which a married woman who wished to sell her property had to be separately examined by a judge or justice of the peace outside of the presence of her husband and asked if her husband was pressuring her into signing the document. This paternal practice, which emerged from English common law, was seen as a means to protect married women's property from overbearing husbands. A number of U.S. states continued to require privy examinations into the late 20th century. Also known as the "separate examination" or "privy exam."
[edit] Further reading
Stacy Braukman and Michael Ross,“Married Women’s Property and Male Coercion: United States Courts and the Role of the Privy Examination, 1860-1883,” Journal of Women’s History, 12 (Summer 2000): 57-80. For an online version of this article see: [1]
