Terri L. Snyder is a professor of American studies at California State University, Fullerton. Her research focuses on the intersections of law, gender, and race in early America, and her most recent book is Brabbling Women: Disorderly Speech and the Law in Early Virginia (2003). She is currently working on two books: "The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in America, 1630-1830" and "Women on the Margins: Gender and Freedom in Early America."