{"petition":[{"petition_analysis_number":"21284406","petition_url":"https:\/\/dlas.uncg.edu\/petitions\/petition\/21284406","state":"North Carolina","county":"Wake","location_type":"County","file_year":1844,"filing_court":"Superior","enslaved_count":0,"fpoc_count":0,"total_people_count":2,"repository":"North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina","abstract":"Thomas M. Oliver accuses his wife Frances of adultery, having \"prostituted herself before marriage.\"  At the time of their marriage, he believed she was a virtuous woman, but after their marriage he discovered otherwise, partly, he contends, through her own written confessions to him.  Thomas claims that, in letters written from New Bern while on a visit to relatives, she admitted having committed \"fornication\" before marriage, and adultery afterwards, Thomas relates; in fact, she had instructed the slaves to tell visitors she was not at home when she was in the bedroom, with \"the doors locked & window curtains let down,\" with her paramour.  Oliver seeks a divorce.  In her lengthy answer to the charges, Frances denies having been an unchaste woman before and during her marriage; she blames her baseless confessions on the fervor and torment of a religious conversion experience that made her feel worthless and drove her to question her conduct toward her husband.","subjects":[{"subject":"Adultery"},{"subject":"Divorce"},{"subject":"Slander"},{"subject":"Churches"},{"subject":"Abandonment "},{"subject":"Sex workers\/Promiscuity "}]}]}