By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority
Publisher: Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,Publication Website: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858325/by-birth-or-consent/
Coverage: 1v. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005
Additional Info: In mid-sixteenth-century England, people were born into authority and responsibility based on their social status. Thus elite children could designate property or serve in Parliament, while children of the poorer sort might be forced to sign labor contracts or be hanged for arson or picking pockets. By the late eighteenth century, however, English and American law began to emphasize contractual relations based on informed consent rather than on birth status. In By Birth or Consent, Holly Brewer explores how the changing legal status of children illuminates the struggle over consent and status in England and America. As it emerged through religious, political, and legal debates, the concept of meaningful consent challenged the older order of birthright and became central to the development of democratic political theory.