“A SIGNIFICANT FORCE IN OUR LEGAL DEVELOPMENT”: THE FIRST AMERICAN WORK ON THE LAWS OF MARRIAGE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS, 1816

REEVE, Tapping. The Law of Baron and Femme; of Parent and Child; of Guardian and Ward; of Master and Servant; and of the Powers of Courts of Chancery. With an Essay on the terms Heir, Heirs, and Heirs of the Body. New Haven: Oliver Steele, 1816. Octavo, period-style full sprinkled sheep gilt, red morocco spine label. $2200.

First edition of the first American work on the laws relating to women, marriage and domestic relations, including a discussion of slavery and the slave trade.

Reeve's principal law book examines the ways in which the English laws of domestic relations were first adapted in the United States. Nearly half the book is devoted to the rights and relations between husband and wife, with substantial sections on the law of other important relations, including slavery. Reeve, brother-in-law of Aaron Burr, enjoyed considerable distinction as the founder of Litchfield Law School, "the first… and for a long time quite the most important school of its kind in the country" (DAB). This work grew out of his law-school lectures. "American text writing, as a significant force in our legal development, begins in 1816 with Reeve's Baron and Femme" (NYU, 755). HLC II:437. Shaw & Shoemaker 38765.

Mild embrowning to interior, faint offsetting to text.