Citation

Edwards L. Fordham Urban Law J. 2023; 51(1): 1-24.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Fordham University School of Law)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

The outlines of Sarah Butler's story seem depressingly familiar. Her husband, Henry Butler, made multiple threats against her before he ambushed and shot her. Fortunately, Sarah escaped serious injury, although it was close: the bullet passed through her clothing. After that incident, Sarah made a complaint to local officials, who arrested her husband. His assault with a firearm, combined with testimony that established a pattern of threats against her life, resulted in a charge of attempted murder. Henry Butler was convicted and imprisoned.

What distinguishes this case from other, similar cases today is that it took place in rural South Carolina in 1824.2 That might seem surprising now, but it was not particularly unusual then. Lower levels of the legal system -- county, municipal, mayors', magistrates', and justices' courts -- regularly dealt with domestic violence, despite the restrictions of coverture, in its definition at the time, which gave husbands disciplinary power over their wives and limited married women's ability to prosecute husbands in their own names.3 In these cases, as in others involving violence, the presence of any kind of weapon, including guns, was assumed to elevate the threat.4

This part of the nation's legal history is not as well-known as the one documented in statutes, appellate decisions, and treatises. While local officials followed the rules laid out in justices' manuals, they applied a capacious definition of common law. Not all local jurisdictions kept written records.5 When records were kept, some have since been thrown away.6 Those that exist are difficult to access and use, because they remain in manuscript form and are located in archives scattered across the country.7

Language: en