Families in Crisis in the Old South Divorce, Slavery, and the Law / Loren Schweninger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schweninger, Loren.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wife abuse--United States.

Wife abuse.

Adultery--United States.

Adultery.

Slavery--Law and legislation--United States.

Slavery.

Divorce--Law and legislation--United States.

Divorce.

Domestic relations--United States.

Domestic relations.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (255 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2013

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the antebellum South, divorce was an explosive issue. As one lawmaker put it, divorce was to be viewed as a form of ""madness,"" and as another asserted, divorce reduced communities to the ""lowest ebb of degeneracy."" How was it that in this climate, the number of divorces rose steadily during the antebellum era? In Families in Crisis in the Old South, Loren Schweninger uses previously unexplored records to argue that the difficulties these divorcing families faced reveal much about the reality of life in a slave-holding society as well as the myriad difficulties confronted by white

Contents:

The evolution of divorce laws

Adultery and the question of race

Insanity, alcoholism, abandonment, and abuse

Lawyers, judges, juries, and decrees

Married women and property

Slaves and owners' domestic conflicts.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-228) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9798893130164

9798890840400

9781469601625

1469601621

9780807837504

0807837504

OCLC:

811502663