Intimate Partner Violence in New Orleans: Gender, Race, and Reform, 1840-1900 - Softcover

Baggett, Ashley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496830806 ISBN 13: 9781496830807

Verlag: University Press of Mississippi, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

Ashley Baggett uncovers the voices of abused women who utilized the legal system in New Orleans to address their grievances from the antebellum era to the end of the nineteenth century. Poring over 26,000 records, Baggett analyzes 421 criminal cases involving intimate partner violence—physical or emotional abuse of a partner in a romantic relationship—revealing a significant demand among women, the community, and the courts for reform in the postbellum decades.

Before the Civil War, some challenges and limits to the male privilege of chastisement existed, but the gendered power structure and the veil of privacy for families in the courts largely shielded abusers from criminal prosecution. However, the war upended gender expectations and increased female autonomy, leading to the demand for and brief recognition of women's right to be free from violence. Baggett demonstrates how postbellum decades offered a fleeting opportunity for change before the gender and racial expectations hardened with the rise of Jim Crow.

Her findings reveal previously unseen dimensions of women's lives both inside and outside legal marriage and women's attempts to renegotiate power in relationships. Highlighting the lived experiences of these women, Baggett tracks how gender, race, and location worked together to define and redefine gender expectations and legal rights. Moreover, she demonstrates recognition of women's legal personhood as well as differences between northern and southern states' trajectories in response to intimate partner violence during the nineteenth century.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ashley Baggett is assistant professor of history at North Dakota State University. She is also affiliate faculty in the women and gender studies program and associate faculty in the School of Education at NDSU.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University Press of Mississippi
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1496830806
• ISBN 13: 9781496830807
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar