Margaret Garner seeks a divorce with alimony from her husband Thomas Garner. Married in 1835, Margaret says that she expected "to have enjoyed that peace protection maintainance and hapiness which of right belong to her sex in the marriage state." However, three months into the marriage, Thomas began to abuse her and continued to do so for over a year. The petitioner states that she has excellent evidence that her husband "had taken a mulattress to the bed of your Oratrix and had carnally Known the said mulattress ... your Oratrix calmly remonstrated with the said Thomas Garner ... and the said Thomas beat and abused your Oratrix severely giving her slap after slap with such rapidity of repetition and such agonizing force as well nigh to deprive your oratrix of life." Margaret says because she "worked incessantly and spent not one cent that could be avoided," her husband has been able to acquire seventeen valuable slaves.
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Repository: University of South Alabama Archives, Mobile, Alabama
