Marital Cruelty in Antebellum America
Book Details
Format
Hardback or Cased Book
ISBN-10
0807163104
ISBN-13
9780807163108
Publisher
Louisiana State University Press
Imprint
Louisiana State University Press
Country of Manufacture
US
Country of Publication
GB
Publication Date
Jul 6th, 2016
Print length
277 Pages
Weight
333 grams
Dimensions
22.50 x 14.00 x 2.20 cms
Product Classification:
History of the AmericasModern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900Social & cultural historyViolence and abuse in societyViolence in societySociology: family & relationshipsSociology: family, kinship and relationshipsHistoryHistory of the AmericasSocial and cultural history
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Probes the struggles of aggrieved spouses shedding light on the nature of marriage and violence in the US in the decades prior to the Civil War. Analysing over 1,500 divorce records that reveal intimate details of marriages in conflict, Robin Sager offers a rare glimpse into the private lives of ordinary Americans shaken by accusations of cruelty.
In Marital Cruelty in Antebellum America, Robin C. Sager probes the struggles of aggrieved spouses shedding light on the nature of marriage and violence in the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War. analysing over 1,500 divorce records that reveal intimate details of marriages in conflict in Virginia, Texas, and Wisconsin from 1840--1860, Sager offers a rare glimpse into the private lives of ordinary Americans shaken by accusations of cruelty.
At a time when the standard for an ideal marriage held that both partners adequately perform their respective duties, hostility often arose from ongoing domestic struggles for power. Despite a rise in the then novel expectation of marriage as a companionate relationship, and even in the face of liberalised divorce grounds, marital conflicts often focused on violations of duty, not lack of love. Sager describes how, in this environment, cruelty was understood as a failure to fulfill expectations and as a weapon to brutally enforce more traditional interpretations of marital duty.
Sager's findings also challenge historical literature's assumptions about the regional influences on violence, showing that married southerners were no more or less violent than their midwestern counterparts. Her work reveals how definitions and perceptions of cruelty varied according to the gender of victim and perpetrator. Correcting historical mischaracterisations of women's violence as trivial, rare, or defensive, Sager finds antebellum wives both capable and willing to commit a wide variety of cruelties within their marriages. Her research provides details about the reality of nineteenth-century conjugal unions, including the deep unhappiness buried within them.
At a time when the standard for an ideal marriage held that both partners adequately perform their respective duties, hostility often arose from ongoing domestic struggles for power. Despite a rise in the then novel expectation of marriage as a companionate relationship, and even in the face of liberalised divorce grounds, marital conflicts often focused on violations of duty, not lack of love. Sager describes how, in this environment, cruelty was understood as a failure to fulfill expectations and as a weapon to brutally enforce more traditional interpretations of marital duty.
Sager's findings also challenge historical literature's assumptions about the regional influences on violence, showing that married southerners were no more or less violent than their midwestern counterparts. Her work reveals how definitions and perceptions of cruelty varied according to the gender of victim and perpetrator. Correcting historical mischaracterisations of women's violence as trivial, rare, or defensive, Sager finds antebellum wives both capable and willing to commit a wide variety of cruelties within their marriages. Her research provides details about the reality of nineteenth-century conjugal unions, including the deep unhappiness buried within them.
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