Lucinda Payne seeks alimony from her estranged husband, John W. Payne, whose annual income "your Oratrix is satisfied ... is worth at least One thousand dollars." Mrs. Payne claims that her husband recently made an assault on her life, beating her with his fist and attacking her with a knife, leaving her "literally covered ... with her own blood." He then took her to a river to wash the blood from her clothes and ordered her at gunpoint to jump in the water and drown herself. She left him to seek refuge with her brother and next friend, John Chappell, and refuses to return in fear for her life. She asserts that she brought a family of seven slaves and the sum of $2800 to their 1818 marriage and that John owns six slaves and two tracts of land in his own right. The petitioner fears that he will sell the property and leave the state. She asks the court to restrain his departure and to "protect the person of your Oratrix from the violence and abuse of the said John W."
Result: Partially granted; settled.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
