{"petition":[{"petition_analysis_number":"20184306","petition_url":"https:\/\/dlas.uncg.edu\/petitions\/petition\/20184306","state":"Alabama","county":"Sumter","location_type":"County","file_day":25,"file_month":5,"file_year":1843,"filing_court":"Chancery","end_year":1843,"ending_court":"Chancery","result":"abated","enslaved_count":0,"fpoc_count":0,"total_people_count":3,"repository":"Sumter County Courthouse, Livingston, Alabama","abstract":"Catharine Underwood seeks a divorce and property settlement from her husband Joel Underwood on the grounds of cruelty and adultery with a female slave.  Six months into the marriage, Catharine reports, Joel \"assumed a coldness and indifference towards her,\" which escalated to physical threats and abuse.  In addition, she asserts that Joel commenced an \"adulterous connexion\" with a female slave he had purchased.  Catharine charges that it was due to this illicit relationship that her husband \"communicated to your oratrix a disease too loathsome and shocking to mention.\"  She therefore asks the court for a divorce.","subjects":[{"subject":"Adultery"},{"subject":"Divorce"},{"subject":"Domestic violence"},{"subject":"Diseases (physical)"},{"subject":"Drunkenness"},{"subject":"Interracial relationships"},{"subject":"Abandonment "}]}]}