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How did the American Revolution change inheritance laws in the new states?

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American Revolution *The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis* (at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781), oil on canvas by John Trumbull, completed in 1820; in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C. The painting captures the moment when major fighting during the American Revolution ended and the colonies achieved independence.

During the American Revolution, the new states moved to align their legal systems with republican principles of equality and individualism by reforming inheritance laws.1

The most significant change was the abolition of primogeniture, a common-law practice that had previously mandated the undivided descent of land to a single heir, typically the eldest son, to preserve family estates. In its place, states adopted laws requiring the equal partition of intestate estates among heirs. This shift was viewed as a necessary departure from feudal customs that were increasingly seen as incompatible with the democratic ideals of the new nation.21

Additionally, some states began to modify property and inheritance laws to allow women to inherit a share of estates and exercise limited control over property after marriage. While these changes represented a move toward recognizing the importance of women within the republican social order, they did not grant women equal civil or political status to men, and the overall impact on their legal standing remained gradual and limited.1