4,962
edits
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* Mill Dam Act of 1795|Massachusetts law that granted dam owners rights to build dams that flooded farmland, forcing them to accept "fair compensation" for the lost land, without possibility of stopping the dam itself | * Mill Dam Act of 1795|Massachusetts law that granted dam owners rights to build dams that flooded farmland, forcing them to accept "fair compensation" for the lost land, without possibility of stopping the dam itself | ||
* turnpikes | * turnpikes | ||
=== Social changes === | |||
* aristocracy|built on primogeniture, which passes "titles" -- social, economic and political ranks granted by a king -- to the first born son; the end of primogeniture dissolved the ability to pass on large estates to a single child (75% under the English custom) and spread inherited wealth across all male, and, eventually, female, children | |||
* companionate marriage: marriage by choice and not family arrangement; marks dramatic change based upon the "democratic" principle of equality and pursuit of happiness; the idea that marriage is a choice also led to a growing acceptance of divorce within legal and social norms (a long process) | |||
* democratic society|reflects the idea that all men are born equal (originally, white males) and so social choices and reputations are based not upon one's birth but one's personal reputation | |||
* sentimentalism|movement of early 1800s that emphasized personal happiness over social obligations and roles | |||
* primogeniture | |||
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