Marriage on the border love, mutuality, and divorce in the Upper South during the Civil War

Drawing on court records, personal correspondence, and prescriptive literature, Marriage on the Border: Love, Mutuality, and Divorce in the Upper South during the Civil War follows border southerners into their homes through blissful betrothal and turbulent divorce. Allison Dorothy Fredette examines...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Fredette, Allison Dorothy (VerfasserIn)
Format: UnknownFormat
Sprache:eng
Veröffentlicht: Lexington, Kentucky University Press of Kentucky 2020
Schriftenreihe:New Directions in Southern History
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Zusammenfassung:Drawing on court records, personal correspondence, and prescriptive literature, Marriage on the Border: Love, Mutuality, and Divorce in the Upper South during the Civil War follows border southerners into their homes through blissful betrothal and turbulent divorce. Allison Dorothy Fredette examines how changing divorce laws in the border regions of Kentucky and West Virginia reveal surprisingly progressive marriages throughout the antebellum and postwar Upper South. Although many states feared that loosening marriage's gender hierarchy threatened slavery's racial hierarchy, border couples redefined traditionally permanent marriages as consensual contracts -- complete with rules and escape clauses. Men and women on the border built marriages on mutual affection, and when that affection faded, filed for divorce at unprecedented rates. Highlighting the tenuous relationship between racial and gendered rhetoric throughout the nineteenth century, Marriage on the Border offers a fresh perspective on the institution of marriage and its impact on the social fabric of the United States
Beschreibung:287 Seiten
Diagramm, Karte
24 cm
ISBN:9780813179155
978-0-8131-7915-5