V of VI
Since in the past there were no laws regarding food labeling, additives, or health claims this meant that people could not sue with the law on their side. This slowly changed and ideas such as individual lawsuits or class action lawsuits for harm by a for profit company became an option. A quick reminder on lawsuit history: “1848 New York passes the Married Woman’s Property Act. For the first time, a woman isn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became, for economic purposes, an individual.” And it wasn’t until 1900 “…every state has passed legislation modeled after New York’s Married Women’s Property Act (1848), granting married women some control over their property and earnings.”34 A reminder that this was white women only: slavery was not abolished until 1865 and human rights for Black people, women especially, were not accessible or followed for some time after. A Black woman would have to be seen as human first to allot the same rights as white women and historically have not been viewed as such. But eventually this attitude of a woman being an individual also made it so we can file lawsuits independently…
Read/watch/listen to the rest of this journey on my Substack
