ABSTRACT
Divorce records from provincial Massachusetts are especially interesting because the years they cover are those least explored in studies of marriage and family in New England. Historians have yet to explain the transition from “Puritan” to “Victorian” standards, but current research has begun to suggest that unrest and change in patterns of sexual and familial behavior were conspicuous during the eighteenth century. Records of divorce in provincial Massachusetts illuminate these little-known aspects of individuals’ lives. The interlude of legislative divorce in Massachusetts clarified the advantage the province gained through its usual practice of divorce by decree. If Massachusetts had taken the legislative route, the history of divorce there would probably have been quite different. Since marriage resembled an indenture contract, divorce should have been more readily available for varieties of nonperformance such as desertion or cruelty.
