'But a mournful remedy': Divorce in two Texas counties, 1841-1880.

摘要

Little scholarship has been dedicated to nineteenth-century Texas family life and no published scholarship to date has addressed the more specific topic of divorce. This study attempts to fill that gap in the historiography through a quantitative analysis of 373 divorce actions filed in Washington and Harrison Counties. The findings show a high degree of equity between men and women in court decisions granting divorces, and in property division and custody rulings. Texas women enjoyed a relatively high degree of legal and personal autonomy, which can be attributed, in part, to a property-rights heritage from Spanish civil law.; Texans adhered to gender-role notions inherent in the nineteenth-century ideal of "compassionate marriage," wherein men and women were equally accountable for fulfilling their particular roles. These standards crossed economic and racial lines. However, local political and social circumstances affected the frequency with which newly-freed blacks accessed the courts in each county.