Jane Griffin petitions through her next friend and guardian ad litem, Thomas Teague, for a separate maintenance from her husband, Reuben Griffin. Jane explains that the couple had been married for many years "without public complaint" until recently, when she found it "necessary to her life, as well as her comfort and happiness" to appeal to the court for protection. She claims that she is "so infirm as to be perfectly helpless" and that her husband has taken her one house servant and made her work in the fields. Jane complains that he has left "no person to attend upon her but a little negroe, not more than capable of giving her a drink of water;" her husband has also locked up the provisions and refuses to let their children provide anything for her needs. Citing that he never comes to her room, she confesses that he refused to provide a physician when she was recently ill. Fearing that her life "will be cut short from violence or absolute want," the petitioner asks that she be "protected in living apart" from her husband and that he "be compelled to settle upon her a sufficient support for the balance of her life." Mr. Griffin's answer refutes many of these charges.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
