Under the system of coverture a married woman's civil identity was covered by her husband's civil identity and she was viewed to be civilly dead. The system of coverture originated in Europe and was part of the English Common Law system. When settlers first colonized what would eventually become the United States, they adopted English Common Law and with it the system of coverture. Through the system of coverture, married women in the United States had no independent civil identity and they were excluded from the rights and obligations of citizenship. For over two hundred years, activists worked to challenge and change the system of coverture and the cultural attitudes and assumptions that were reflected through coverture. Though legal coverture ended in the closing decades of the twentieth century, the cultural attitudes and assumptions on which coverture was based are still impacting women and limiting their full freedom and agency. This thesis examines the historical foundations of marriage laws/coverture in Colonial America and traces their progression from laws to the cultural practices that women in contemporary America must navigate and negotiate in their lives.