A pregnant Milly L. Morris seeks a divorce and alimony from her husband, Joseph Morris, as well as custody of their child and of the unborn one "if said child is a female child." Milly reports that Joseph "exhibited towards her a jealous suspicious dictatorial spirit," governing their "domestic matters" by arbitrary rules, which he called "golden rules [that] were not to be varied from in any instance." He found fault with her housekeeping and "treated her more like a slave or hired servant than wife," noting that he told her that if she "was as obedient to him as Andrew [a servant] she would get as kind treatment as him." Twice he forced her to work while pregnant; the second time she "warped a web of 65 yards which in streaching up her hands to reach the pins strained and fatigued her very much" causing her to have an "abortion" the following day. Finally, one of her husband's slaves, Nelly, informed her that Joseph fathered a mulatto child named Mary. Joseph then "tryed to make the negro confess that complainant had quized the negro to get her to inform complainant all about the mulatto child." He next talked over "the whole matter" in the presence of "two white Gentlemen ... denominating it a trial" and then gave Nelly three hundred sixty-seven lashes until she was nearly dead. Asserting that Joseph owns seventeen slaves, valued near $10,000, she seeks "a sufficient portion of his property" for her own use.
Result: Granted; appealed; modified and remanded.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
