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Divorce Essay On Divorce

Good Essays

Susan Parks

Prof. David Mercer

Family Law

Final Writing Project

October 13, 2017

The American Divorce: Before and After No-Fault Mr. and Mrs. James Luxford of the Massachusetts Bay Colony hold the distinction of being the first couple to divorce in the American Colonies back on December 3, 1639, on the grounds of bigamy. After the divorce was granted, James was promptly thrown in the stocks and eventually banished to England. Divorce was treated with more severity back then. The stigma once connected to divorce has changed drastically throughout American history, both in laws and public perceptions. While divorce was allowed and there were laws addressing this need, it was discouraged and would be granted only on limited …show more content…

The desire to send men away happy led to casual sexual encounters, quick marriages and often both. These illicit relations among the unmarried startled and began to shift society standards.
Still, marriage rates skyrocketed during the war years. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that more marriages had occurred, “in each of the past four years than in any prior year in the history of the United States.” “War mobilization encouraged many couples to marry sooner than they had planned and others to marry soon after meeting each other. Many of these long distance relationships unraveled over the war years, with the high wartime marriage rates resulting in the highest divorce rates in U.S. history.”
All of these factors forged a different society. After these collective experiences, many women were unwilling to step back into the submissive roles they had been relegated to in the past. They had come to appreciate their newly found autonomy and sense of independence. As Susan B. Anthony II stated at the time, the war’s end would “mark a turning point in women’s road to full equality.” As men returned home and divorce rates rose to record numbers, couples were faced with the dilemma of finding fault grounds for divorce, but there were no provisions for blaming the catalyst of a World War. Alongside this, the era of Civil Rights began to make its first crawling attempts onto the national stage. Times

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