Married in 1822, Mary Clark brought to the union "property in negroes and otherwise quite sufficient to have maintained her in a single state in the greatest comfort." Soon after the marriage, however, her husband "became suddenly estranged in his affections," due, she believes, to the manipulation of his relatives. He charged her with "personal prostitution," and although cleared by the Eno congregation of the Presbyterian Church, their life together has been "rendered intolerable." She asks for a divorce and alimony. In his answer, Stephen Clark paints a complete different picture of the marriage; one in which his wife was unchaste before their union, had an abortion that impaired her health and resulted in her inability to have children, and continued to have adulterous relationships during the marriage. He claims that she is the one that initiated the separation, to which he agreed.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
