SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University
SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University
SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University
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In colonial America, absolute divorce with the right to remarry was a real possibility only<br />
in the New England colonies dominated by Puritan thought. As the historical geographer Mary<br />
Somerville Jones concludes about the significance of the Puritans’ religious views, these<br />
colonies “readily accepted the concept of absolute divorce for serious marital offenses, which<br />
had been elaborated by such leaders as Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. Therefore, New England<br />
colonies permitted divorce, which could be granted by civil courts, the legislature, or the<br />
governor.” 16 The most widely accepted grounds for divorce in the 1600s were adultery,<br />
desertion (5 years), impotence, fraudulent contract, consanguinity, and bigamy. 17<br />
This is not to say, however, that divorce was common in the New England colonies.<br />
Even though Massachusetts and Connecticut had liberal divorce laws for that time, the two<br />
colonies, with a combined population of 110,000, recorded a total of eleven divorces during the<br />
1690’s. During a fifty year period in the 18 th century, from 1738-1788, that rate sharply<br />
increased with the Connecticut legislature granting 390 divorces. Even though divorce statistics<br />
from this period are unreliable, this number when compared with the surrounding colonies<br />
proved Connecticut granted substantially more divorces than other New England colonies.<br />
During this same period of time, Massachusetts granted approximately 192 divorces. As least<br />
one historian believes that Connecticut had become a magnet for persons from other colonies<br />
desperate to get a divorce. Mary Somerville Jones maintains that it “is possible to surmise that<br />
even at this early date Connecticut was granting some out-of-state divorces, probably to New<br />
York residents, since it was for many years the only state in New England allowing divorce for<br />
the all-encompassing omnibus clause.” 18<br />
16 Jones, 17.<br />
17 Ibid.<br />
18 Ibid., 18. The omnibus clause allowed a petitioner to prove that there had been a marital breakdown.<br />
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