Hartog — Volume 61, Issue 2

Through analysis of nineteenth and early twentieth-century New Jersey legal documents, this article explores how American law conceptualized and regulated caregiving work, particularly within family contexts. The author examines cases like Cooper v. Colson, a foundational New Jersey case involving a housekeeper promised farm inheritances in exchange for decades of elder care. The article investigates the boundary between care understood as family obligation and care understood as compensable labor, arguing that legal doctrine struggled to articulate this distinction. By examining trial transcripts and wills, Hartog reveals how the law confronted competing expectations when individuals performed care work under ambiguous contractual arrangements. The article contributes to legal history by demonstrating how inheritance law and property doctrine evolved to address situations where caregiving service claims challenged traditional assumptions about family relationships and testamentary freedom.

Topics: Legal History · Family Law · Property

Keywords: Cooper v. Colson · caregiving · inheritance · testamentary freedom · family obligation · elder care · domestic service