Ni solteras, ni casadas, ni viudas…Las mujeres ante la emigración masculina a América (siglos XVIII-XIX)

Resum

Research on Canarian emigration to America have specialized in the analysis of the various issues surrounding the decision to migrate. Traditionally the actors of emigration were males, the female figures disappeared from the story of the emigration. However, the emigration of men deeply marked the environment of women remaining in the places of origin, recomposing the daily life of the family in the absence of the “bread winner”. The existence of these women, in any historical era, has been marked by loneliness, poverty and isolation. Documentation Attorney, rich in details about the daily life of the society of the Ancien Régime, allows us track a handful of women, those that lacked a defined marital status married to her absent husband, which deprived them of legal autonomy to decide freely about their families and their property.