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Heartsick and Astonished: Divorce in Civil War-Era West Virginia
Paperback
Series: New Perspectives on the Civil War Era
19th Century United States HistoryGeneral World HistoryRelationships
ISBN13: 9780820364285
Publisher: Univ Of Georgia Pr
Published: May 15 2023
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.99
Height: 0.68 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Heartsick and Astonished features twenty-seven divorce cases from mid-nineteenth century America. More than dry legal documents, these cases provide a captivating window into marital life--and strife--in the border South during the tumultuous years before, during, and after the Civil War. Allison Dorothy Fredette has brought these primary documents to light, revealing the inner thoughts, legal hardships, and day-to-day struggles of these average citizens.
In Wheeling, West Virginia, the seat of Ohio County, courtrooms bore witness to men and women from various ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds who shared shockingly intimate details of their lives and relationships. Some tried desperately to defend their masculinity or femininity; others hoped to restore their reputations to the legal system and to their community. In an era of uncertainty--when the country was torn in two, when the Wheeling community became the capital of a new state, and when activists across the country began to push for women's rights in the household and family--the divorce cases of ordinary couples reveal changing attitudes toward marriage, gender, and legal separation in a booming border city perched on the edge of the South.1 different editions
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