Citation

Merrick J. J. Fam. Hist. 2012; 37(4): 417-427.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, National Council On Family Relations, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0363199012443666

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 1775, 135 wives and 35 husbands filed complaints against their spouses with the Parisian commissioners of police. Most of the wives charged their husbands with verbal and physical violence, and a few of them initiated lawsuits for separation of property and/or persons. In those cases, the depositions of witnesses document conventional expectations about gendered roles in the household as well as the dynamics of communication, representation, and justification in the neighborhood. Against the background of debates about the use and abuse of royal authority in the decades preceding the Revolution, the complaints and lawsuits show that the traditional family/state model not only downplayed accountability in principle but also sanctioned accountability in practice.

Language: en