In 1854, shortly after their marriage, Elizabeth P. Rea says that her husband became "much addicted to intoxication." Later, when she was pregnant, he forced her to leave their home at gun point. She spent the night on "the bed of a negro Servant girl," and the next day she gave birth their third child. In 1863, though they were no longer living together, he overtook her on the road on one occasion and "beat her over the head and face with a horse whip inflicting severe pain." He was also guilty, she charged, of adultery. Rea seeks a divorce and alimony.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
