Spoiler alert for Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’:
The ‘hero’ of the book auctioned off his wife.
I wouldn’t have got that much for mine anyway. She’d really started to let herself go towards the end.
I won’t get that for mine
YOOO THATS MY TOWN
Really didn’t need an exact quotation immediately above the completely legible image
There is a lot more nuance than you would expect.
A married man had a legal duty of care towards his wife, even if they split up and neither wanted to be together he still had a legal duty. There was no way to escape that duty other than divorce but the divorce laws at the time were so strict that you generally couldn’t get a divorce without being rich.
There was however a legal myth that was popular at the time that you could end that legal right by selling it on. A modern example would be that if you have an animal in your care you have a legal duty to care for it but by selling it whoever bought it then took over the legal right. Adoption would be another similar example.
This myth had no actual basis in law (as many husbands later found out) but it was commonly believed to be true by poor people and they had no access to legal advice.
Usually the ‘sales’ of a wife were pre-arranged with the wife’s consent and the new ‘husband’ was usually her lover who she wanted to be married to. The new husband would make an agreement with the old husband and the wife and they would make the deal publicly for a small pre-agreed amount to make it seem legally sound.
So while pretty fucked up, it’s a lot less fucked up than it sounds. The wife was almost always in favour of the sale and in a lot of cases were probably the one suggesting it.
The old husband benefitted as well since if his wife left him without this he would still be expected to financially support her. There were cases in the Victorian era of wives leaving their husband and racking up more debts than he could pay forcing him into debtors prison.
Who paid who?
What was the Clubcard price?
You could get rid of your wife *and get* money!?!? Why was the ever stopped?
Horsham <=> Whore Sham.
I don’t make the rules.
Ooof! That’s steep! 😖
😏
I didn’t know that either. I thought the last wife sale was in Lettuceborn.
13 comments
Spoiler alert for Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’:
The ‘hero’ of the book auctioned off his wife.
I wouldn’t have got that much for mine anyway. She’d really started to let herself go towards the end.
I won’t get that for mine
YOOO THATS MY TOWN
Really didn’t need an exact quotation immediately above the completely legible image
There is a lot more nuance than you would expect.
A married man had a legal duty of care towards his wife, even if they split up and neither wanted to be together he still had a legal duty. There was no way to escape that duty other than divorce but the divorce laws at the time were so strict that you generally couldn’t get a divorce without being rich.
There was however a legal myth that was popular at the time that you could end that legal right by selling it on. A modern example would be that if you have an animal in your care you have a legal duty to care for it but by selling it whoever bought it then took over the legal right. Adoption would be another similar example.
This myth had no actual basis in law (as many husbands later found out) but it was commonly believed to be true by poor people and they had no access to legal advice.
Usually the ‘sales’ of a wife were pre-arranged with the wife’s consent and the new ‘husband’ was usually her lover who she wanted to be married to. The new husband would make an agreement with the old husband and the wife and they would make the deal publicly for a small pre-agreed amount to make it seem legally sound.
So while pretty fucked up, it’s a lot less fucked up than it sounds. The wife was almost always in favour of the sale and in a lot of cases were probably the one suggesting it.
The old husband benefitted as well since if his wife left him without this he would still be expected to financially support her. There were cases in the Victorian era of wives leaving their husband and racking up more debts than he could pay forcing him into debtors prison.
Who paid who?
What was the Clubcard price?
You could get rid of your wife *and get* money!?!? Why was the ever stopped?
Horsham <=> Whore Sham.
I don’t make the rules.
Ooof! That’s steep! 😖
😏
I didn’t know that either. I thought the last wife sale was in Lettuceborn.
What’s that in today’s money?
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