| Summary: | Petition for dower by the plaintiff. The defendants contended that this should be barred as she had left her husband and had gone to live with a slave, without making any reconciliation. Case of adultery with a slave. She had a child by this slave and her husband filed for divorce. The Supreme Court ruled on a split decision that although she was divorced by her husband, she did not forfeit her dower as Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin and one of his colleagues ruled that she could not be said to have willingly left her husband. The defendants needed to prove that she had willingly left her husband to get a verdict under Revised Statutes, chapter 121, section 11. Justice Pearson dissented. He felt that she had forfeited her rights due to her adultery and that her actions amounted to both leaving willingly and adultery as per statute.
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