User:Pensive.Shrimp/Divorce

Early America
In colonial America, marriage was understood to be for the purpose of reproductive and economic success. Divorce was granted if either party was proven to have deceived the other about their financial or reproductive status.

Impotence as grounds for divorce required physical examination of the husband. Women with malformed genitalia would also be examined by a midwife to determine of the malformation was responsible for infertility.

In the antebellum South, courts were reluctant to divorce white couples. Wives were the most likely to ask for divorce, however husbands were more likely to receive one. Successful divorces initiated by husbands were often in response to the wife's infidelity with a black man. A landmark court case in 1825 set the precedent of prioritizing the raising of white children over the wife's adultery.

In the 1860s, marriage law changed rapidly as the definition of miscegenation was altered to account for more and different racial categories. This sometimes forced the annulment of mixed-race marriages.