Hansley v. Hansley: 1849 - Mr. Hansley's Sudden Change

According to Mrs. Hansley, the couple was happily married for many years. Then, for reasons unknown to her, Mr. Hansley took to drink and would sometimes be intoxicated for up to a month. He also began to beat her and "absent himself from the petitioner [Mrs. Hansley] during the whole night." Mrs. Hansley later learned that her husband was sleeping with one of his slaves named Lucy. Still, Mrs. Hansley "tried to endure, as long as it was reasonable for any wife to endure, the conduct of her husband" before Mr. Hansley entirely abandoned his wife's bed for Lucy's.

Mr. Hansley then moved Lucy into the home, "deprived the petitioner of the control of all those domestic duties and privilege connected with the house which belong to a wife," and gave to Lucy "the full possession and enjoyment of those privileges and duties." Mr. Hansley also repeatedly ordered his wife to give her place to Lucy and encouraged Lucy to treat Mrs. Hansley with disdain and disrespect. Afterward, "not satisfied with the treatment as above set forth," Mr. Hansley would starve his wife for two or three days at a time and lock her outside the house overnight without any protection from the elements. Worst of all, Mr. Hansley often forced his wife to sleep in the same bed with him and Lucy while he had sex with the other woman.