Bodeman

So you think you have it bad? Most of the first settlers who landed in Maryland in the late 1600s didn't live past the first year or two. And those who did had short tough lives.

Dorsey Bodeman, public programs director at Historic St. Mary's City, gave a short history lesson recently during a program at the Calvert Marine Museum, focusing on the plight of women in 17th century Maryland.

Fifteen years after the first historic landing on the Maryland peninsula, in 1650, there were on 600 people in the state, 200 of them women.

"Those were pretty good odds for a woman looking for a husband," Bodeman said.

But most women didn't have the luxury of a love life, as most came across the ocean as indentured servants, committed to work off the cost of their passage for several years. And the only way out of the indenture was to have a man pay off the "owner" of the servant.

There aren't many existing personal records or journals from the 17th century Marylanders. Much of the knowledge has been gleaned from surviving court records, which she light on custody issues, marriage agreements, crimes and credit claims.

In these two video clips, Bodeman gives details of a few marriage agreements filed to protect each woman from loosing all her belongings upon her husband's death.