{"petition":[{"petition_analysis_number":"21385760","petition_url":"https:\/\/dlas.uncg.edu\/petitions\/petition\/21385760","state":"South Carolina","county":"Fairfield","location_type":"District","file_day":18,"file_month":4,"file_year":1857,"filing_court":"Equity","end_day":0,"end_month":0,"end_year":0,"result":"","enslaved_count":9,"fpoc_count":0,"total_people_count":15,"repository":"South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina","abstract":"Frances Boulware requests alimony from her estranged husband, Osmond.  She confesses that said Osmond \"became dissipated & treated your Oratrix with great cruelty\" and that \"to obtain safety & peace your Oratrix was compelled to leave his house.\"  She admits that she \"was induced by the protestations & promises of the said Osmond to return to his house;\" upon her return, however, the petitioner charges that he \"beat her most inhumanly with sticks & rails -- shot pistols at her, threatened to take her life,\" causing her to flee \"in great terror & fear of life\" from her husband's \"bed & board the second time & has ever since continued to live separate from him.\"  Frances further charges that Osmond has repeatedly engaged in \"unseemly intercourse with lewed women.\"  She reveals that he set up a trust estate for his and his four sons' benefit in 1853, consisting of land and 9 slaves; the deed directed that said slaves were to be appraised and divided when the oldest son arrived \"at his majority,\" with each child receiving a one-fourth part at age 21.  Frances laments that her parents have recently died, leaving her without a means of support.  She also alleges that Osmond \"has hitherto wholly neglected & refused to make any provision or any contributions\" to her and her two children's support.  Frances prays that Osmond be decreed \"to pay to your Oratrix such a sum for her alimony or transfer such a proportion of his property to the use of your Oratrix as shall seem to your Honors just & equitable.\"","subjects":[{"subject":"Adultery"},{"subject":"Alimony"},{"subject":"Domestic violence"},{"subject":"Assault"},{"subject":"Abandonment "},{"subject":"Enslaver (minors)"}]}]}