In 1870 the United States was a collection of island communities, rural places that were relatively isolated from one another and in which populations were stable over generations. These communities were similar to traditional communities in Europe where everyone within a family worked hard, where children were seen as assets (promising work now and in the future) and where neighbours both took care of each other and kept watch over each other. Over the next fifty years, those island communities would be drawn into a larger world as new technologies, a growing national economy and an expanding consumer culture penetrated their isolation. By 1920 more than half the country's population would live in the city and radios, automobiles and the post office would connect all but the most remote areas to the metropolitan world.

This transition would have a profound impact on single women who gave birth outside of marriage. As community isolation eroded so did the community's ability to control and watch over its members. When this happened, women were forced to turn to the state and to the laws developed by those in power. It was there that they met and had to deal with laws that were very different in Maine and Tennessee. This was true even though the two states were both once part of the original thirteen colonies and inherited the same British Common Law tradition.