"Bessie Done Cut Her Old Man": Race, Common-Law Marriage, and Homicide in New Orleans, 1925-1945

Abstract

This essay examines domestic homicide in early twentieth-century New Orleans. African-American residents killed their domestic partners at eight times the rate of white New Orleanians, and these homicides were most often committed by women, who killed their partners at fifteen times the rate of white women. Common-law marriages proved to be especially violent among African-American residents. Based on nearly two hundred cases identified in police records and other sources as partner killings between 1925 and 1945, this analysis compares lethal violence in legal marriages and in common-law unions. It also explores the social and institutional forces that buffeted common-law marriages, making this the most violent domestic arrangement and contributing to the remarkably high rate of spousal homicide by African-American women in early twentieth-century New Orleans.

Relationship (A)Symmetries and Violence: Comparing Intimates and NonPartners

“…The very few incidents in these data between ex-intimate partners are no more likely to involve symbolic issues than is violence between asymmetrical nonpartner opponents; in this case, of the eight violent incidents that emerged over substantive issues of contention between ex-intimate partners, half were related to conflict over the break up and almost all of the remaining incidents involved conflicts over child custody and financial support. Thus, the apparent symmetry that characterizes the intimate partner relationship appears to shift abruptly when the relationship terminates (Adler, 2010). These latter findings should be interpreted with caution, of course, as very few of the incidents in these data involve ex-partners.…”

“…This greater equality over decisions about the state of common-law relationships implies greater symmetry in the social standing of partners vis-à-vis one another (Barlow, Duncan, James, & Park, 2005; Hall, 1996). In his study on race and IPV in pre-World War II New Orleans, Adler (2010) shows that the symmetry characterizing the common-law partnership has, in turn, implications for the issues of contention over which violence erupts. In particular, control or authority disputes triggered twice as many homicides in common-law marriages as in formal marriages, while quarrels about separation or reconciliation and fights ignited by jealousy generated half as many homicides in common-law unions.…”

“…More than threats of separation or allegations of infidelity, seemingly trivial disagreements generated lethal violence [between common-law partners]. (Adler, 2010, p. 130)…”

“…To the extent cultural vestiges of the institutionalized inequalities of marital unions remain, we might expect more violence to erupt in common-law partnerships than in marital unions, given that challenges to the assertion of authority by one’s partner generate “a lower flashpoint for conflict” (Adler, 2010, p. 132).…”

“…. [wherein] in return for state validation, women [lose] control over property and [become], in the eyes of the law, dependents of their husbands” (Adler, 2010, p. 126; see also Magdol, Moffitt, Caspi, & Silva, 1998). Consequently, men’s proprietary behavior should be greater in less formal unions (which lack institutionalized norms clarifying men’s authority over their partners) compared with marriages.…”