State: North Carolina Year: 1809
Location: Ashe Location Type: County
Abstract: Alexander Smith seeks a divorce from his wife Sarah Dickson Smith. He states that he married Sarah in 1784 and that they lived together for many years "in domestic peace and pleasure," raising a family of five girls. Smith confides, however, that Sarah "became base in her conduct" and in 1808 "she went off with a Mullatoe man nearly as Black as an Negro and has lived without the Bounds of this State with said man of mixt collur ever since." The petitioner prays that he be divorced from his wife Sarah and that she be forever prevented “in Law or in Equity to Claim any right Title or interest to any part of your Petitioner's Estate or property real or personal."
You may contact the county to request the full record of this legal action.
The Digital Library on American Slavery, website University of North Carolina at Greensboro