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Subject:
Re: Age of Consent
From:
Brent Tarter <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:09:21 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
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I once learned that up until age 21, a person was legally an infant and
couldn't do or consent to very much at all. I have since learned that
that is quite wrong. In fact, many of the generalizations are age and
consent are inexact or wrong.

Being "of age" or of an age to consent to something meant different
things in different times and different place and (most importantly) for
different purposes. There is an excellent and fresh discussion of this
evolving phenomenon in Holly Brewer's "By Birth or Consent: Children,
Law, and the Anglo-American Revoution in Authority" (UNC Press, 2005).

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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