Petition #20186313

Abstract

In 1856, at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Mobile, James E. Slater married slaveholder Emily Cooper, a young woman residing in the city with her mother. Engaging in mercantile business, Slater traveled a great deal, often absent for weeks at a time. In April 1863, while in Montgomery, he sustained an injury and sent for his wife. A few nights after her arrival he discovered her kissing one Charles A. Black in her hotel room. He immediately sent her to her mother's, and, having "lost his faith in her honor and chastity," made arrangements for a permanent separation. It was then that he found out that during his absences she had led a life "of great wantonness and profligacy." On various occasions, she had invited men to her house, or rendezvoused with them "elsewhere in the City of Mobile for the purpose of a guilty Sexual Intercourse." Slater seeks a divorce, and asks for custody of their five-year-old daughter Kate.

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Citation information

Repository: University of South Alabama Archives, Mobile, Alabama

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