Tabitha Pope charges that her husband, William Oswald Pope, committed frequent acts of adultery with women of color. In 1849, he engaged in an illicit relationship with Violet, a black woman owned by his father-in-law; and in 1850 and 1851, he had "carnal connection[s]" with his own slave, a "certain Mulatto woman named Maria Jane." According to a related testimony, in the late evening, Pope would go to the shop where Maria Jane lived, enter her quarters, take "off his boots & stockings & breeches & completely undress himself," put out the lamp, and light a candle. Tabitha also charges that her husband frequently cursed her in "the most insulting and opprobrious terms." The insults, Tabitha says, were worse "than the infliction of personal violence, because they were outrages upon her womanly delicacy and sensibility." In 1851, she sues for divorce, citing infidelity and cruelty.
Result: Dismissed.
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Repository: University of South Alabama Archives, Mobile, Alabama
