In Tender Consideration : Women, Families, and the Law in Abraham Lincoln's Illinois

by Stowell, Daniel W.

• ISBN13: 9780252027024
• ISBN10: 0252027027
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

From debt to divorce, from adultery to slander, cases with women as plaintiffs, defendants, or both appeared regularly on docket books in antebellum Illinois. Nearly one-fifth of Abraham Lincoln's cases involved women as litigants, and during the twenty-five years of his legal career thousands of women appeared in Illinois courts, as litigants, criminal defendants, witnesses, and spectators.Drawing on the rich resources of 3The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, a DVD version of Lincoln's complete legal papers, 3In Tender Consideration scans the full range of family woes that antebellum Americans took to the law. Deserted wives, destitute widows, jilted brides with illegitimate children, and slandered women brought their cases before the courts, often receiving a surprising degree of sympathy and support.Through the stories of dozens of individuals who took legal action to obtain a divorce, contest a will, prosecute a rapist, or assert rights to family property, this volume illuminates the legal status of women and children in Illinois and their experiences with the law in action. Contributors document how the courts viewed children and how they responded to inheritance, custody, and other types of cases involving children or their interests. These cases also highlight Lincoln's life in law, placing him more clearly within the context of the legal culture in which he lived and raising intriguing questions about the influence of his legal life on his subsequent political one.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Michael Grossberg
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(16)
Daniel W. Stowell
PART 1: CONSIDERING GENDER AND AGE IN THE COURTS
Femes UnCovert: Women's Encounters with the Law	17	(29)
Daniel W. Stowell
``For the Well-Being of the Child'': The Law and Childhood	46	(25)
Dennis E. Suttles
PART 2: MARRIAGES, FAMILIES, AND PROPERTY IN CONFLICT
Dissolving the Bonds of Matrimony: Women and Divorce in Sangamon County, Illinois, 1837-60	71	(33)
Stacy Pratt McDermott
Inheriting the Earth: The Law of Succession	104	(25)
John A. Lupton
Wives, Widows, and Will Makers: Women and the Law of Property	129	(32)
Christopher A. Schnell
PART 3: ``CASE'' STUDIES
The Law in an Illinois Corner: The Impact of the Law on an Antebellum Family	161	(21)
Stacy Pratt McDermott
``Infamous Outrage and Prompt Retribution'': The Case of People v. Delny	182	(22)
Susan Krause
Her Day in Court: The Legal Odyssey of Clarissa Wren	204	(25)
Daniel W. Stowell
Contributors	229	(2)
Index of Cases	231	(2)
General Index	233