In England between the late
eighteenth all the way on through the mid-nineteenth century there occurred a
fascinating but little spoken of custom called wife-selling. There is an account of this practice in The Mayor of Casterbridge, but otherwise
is not often accounted for, perhaps because it was not terribly commonplace.
Wife-selling was an illegal
practice but one many people felt was their only alternative to divorce. Until
the Marriage Act of 1857 was passed, it would take an official Act of Parliament
to pass a divorce, along with a prohibitive price tag to the tune of around
$20,000 in today’s terms. Unhappily married partners of low means eventually
came up with an alternative way to separate through the process of a public
sale.
In order to understand a
wife-sale more in-depth, we need to keep in mind the husband was not only
considered the protector and provider of his wife, but her owner. Therefore he
was seen as having the right to sell her as he would any possession. The law
did not support wife-selling, but in other senses it very much defined the wife
as the husband’s possession. Through marriage all that was hers became his.
For an unhappily married
couple, the wife-sale provided a way out of the dilemma. It was certainly more
honorable than the husband deserting the woman, as many did and were sometimes
prosecuted for. The husband could pass responsibility onto another willing
party and the woman could come out of the deal with a hopefully more suitable
partner and something of an untarnished name in the eyes of the community,
which would have been an integral part of their lives. It is recorded that
sometimes the man she was sold to was already her lover, or at least someone
she and her husband had prearranged. But this wasn’t always the case.
 |
| Michael Henchard, on the way to a fair to sell his wife and child,
From The Mayor of Casterbridge
|
Generally the custom took place
in rural areas in the public marketplace to ensure as many witnesses as
possible. The husband would register his wife as a good of sale and a rope was
placed loosely around her neck, arm, or waist (a supposedly humorous nod to the
way beasts were led to sale). She would be led up to an auction block or
platform to be bid on by the jeering crowd. The crowds loved this sort of sport.
As mentioned above, generally someone
was prearranged to win the bidding. But not always; sometimes the auction was
truly won by the highest bidder! Imagine
you were a lonely or widowed farmer who could really use a woman’s helping
hand—particularly if you had children to raise. What an opportunity!
After the winner was chosen,
the auctioneer closed the sale and money or goods were exchanged along with the
toll ticket that was used to register the woman for sale and the halter. The winner would take the woman home to live
with him, but before then a trip to the tavern might be in order to celebrate
the transaction. Drinks were on tab of the former husband. How the woman felt
at the other end of this is anyone’s guess.
A quieter way to go about a
sale was through an ad in the newspaper, perhaps especially if one’s wife did
not consent? Still, the law was strict in its stance that the new couple was living
in adultery, both a moral and a legal transgression, and that any children born
under the new union would be legally illegitimate. Prosecution for wife-selling
is on the records, but overall a blind eye was turned.
To be fair, it is generally
agreed upon that if the woman appeared to be in distress, the sale would be
halted, but there is no way to be sure every woman consented. The practice largely petered
off by mid-nineteenth century, and was very seldom recorded at all by century’s
end.
So you see wife-selling was not
only a solution to an unhappy marriage, it was also a playful jab at convention.
However, what if the wife did not consent? And what if she was pregnant? This
is something I explore in my novel, Roeing
Oaks.
Kristina Emmons lives in
greater Seattle, WA with her husband and two children. She hopes to convey a
sense of community and justice through her writing.
