Marital Miseries: A History of Marital Conflicts in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony, 1828-1900

Sinn, Isabella

Marital Miseries: A History of Marital Conflicts in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony, 1828-1900

Thesis / Dissertation

2023

Abstract

Work on the family in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony has focused on the themes of gender and sexuality, and within this framework, significant research has been done with regards to slavery, sexual violence, illegitimacy, infanticide, health and medicine. The monogamous, Christian marriage took on particular political and social significance during this period of unstable and shifting social and economic identities, specifically within the context of the full emancipation of slaves in 1838. While important research has been conducted in this field, there is a gap in the literature which this study attempts to fill around the individual, personal experiences of the breakdowns of the institution of marriage and what it was imagined to symbolise as a sign (and the foundation) of social stability. This dissertation is particularly invested in what people's individual experiences, personal feelings and emotions may illuminate about white British working- and middle-class identity at the Cape and its concerns, tensions, pressures and anxieties, as well as what they might exemplify about the ideas around femininity and masculinity during this period. This research is grounded in a history of emotions, which has in my view been under-researched in this context, as well as a history of intimacy. Through an exploration of the records of marital disputes brought before the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony from 1828, following the introduction of the Supreme Court, until 1900, and primarily through a microhistorical examination of a number of these cases, this dissertation demonstrates how some of these cases can be conceived of as instances of ruptures of the dominant social order and ideals around the family, gender and sexuality. Moreover, it endeavours to show how although the law could be used as a tool for perpetuating patriarchal authority, it was also mobilised as a resource to end marriages by many women who can be seen to have attempted to challenge the patriarchal colonial order. In doing so, how the legal domain was permeated with social meaning and emotions is investigated, while through an examination particularly of the personal letters included in the records of some of these marital conflicts the ways in which these individuals understood the events around these struggles is explored. Ultimately, this work attempts to provide an intimate, emotional exploration of legal marital conflicts which offer considerable insight into ideas around the family, gender and sexuality at the Cape during this period.

Keywords

Historical Studies

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