Bibliograph

Families in crisis in the Old South, divorce, slavery, and the law, Loren Schweninger

Type

Label

Families in crisis in the Old South, divorce, slavery, and the law, Loren Schweninger

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Families in crisis in the Old South

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Loren Schweninger

Sub title

divorce, slavery, and the law

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 southern families who chose not to divorce. Basing his argument on almost 800 divorce cases from the southern United States, Schweninger explores the impact of divorce and separation on white families and on the enslaved and provides insights on issues including domestic violence, interracial adultery, alcoholism, insanity, and property relations. He examines how divorce and separation laws changed, how married women's property rights expanded, how definitions of inhuman treatment of wives evolved, and how these divorces challenged conventional mores

Target audience

adult

Classification