SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

divorce reflected the changing trend in America. Through his notes in this case, he clearly
showed how American divorce laws and sentiments toward divorce had gradually broadened.
Jefferson understood how important the option of divorce was to women. Riley
explained, “Jefferson commented that divorce ‘restores to women their natural right of equality’
and that it was ‘cruel to confine Divorce or Repudiation to [a] husband who has so many ways of
rendering his domestic affairs agreeable, by Command or desertion, whereas [a] wife [is]
confined and subject.’” 31 When allowed, divorce gave women a more level playing field. In too
many cases, men would just walk out on their families. Divorce helped women to regain their
dignity and financial security. In colonies that permitted divorce, the numbers of divorce
petitions introduced continued to increase throughout the 18 th century and post-Revolutionary
lawmakers began to reconsider laws concerning divorce.
One crucial debate focused on whether divorces should be decided through legislative or
judicial means, that is, the question of whether divorce should be dealt with through the civil
courts, or whether divorce could only be granted through a special bill passed by a legislature.
For example, in 1803, the Commonwealth of Virginia ended its long ban on absolute divorce
when the Virginia General Assembly terminated a marriage and thus enacted the first legislative
divorce within the state. Virginia legislators saw that separate maintenance agreements failed to
solve couples’ problems. In addition to solving the issue of the type of divorce their state would
offer, the legislators had to decide how divorce proceedings would occur. Riley maintains,
“After briefly considering a bill placing jurisdiction for divorce in chancery courts, Virginia
legislators followed the lead of English authorities by placing jurisdiction in the legislature,
31 Ibid.
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