Moments of Despair: Suicide, Divorce, and Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina

Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Contents Part I. By His Own Hand Suicide 7 1 Most Horrible of Crimes Suicide in the Old South 11 2 The Self-Slaying Epidemic Suicide after the Civil War 23 3 The Legacy of the War We Suppose Suicide in Medical and Social Thought 53 Part II. To Loosen the Bands of Society Divorce 71 4 The Country Is Also a Party Antebellum Divorce in Black and White 75 5 Connubial Bliss until He Entered the Army by Conscription Civil War and Divorce 95 6 The Divorce Mill Runs Over Time Marital Breakdown and Reform in the New South 113 Part III. Enslaved by Debt The Culture of Credit and Debt 137 7 Sacredness of Obligations Debt in Antebellum North Carolina 141 8 Out of Debt before I Die The Credit Crisis of the Civil War 159 9 What the Landlord and the Storeman Choose to Make It General Stores, Pawnshops, and Boardinghouses in the New South 173 10 Nothing Less than a Question of Slavery or Freedom Populism and the Crisis of Debt in the New South 205 Conclusion 217 Appendix Methodological Problems in Studying the History of Suicide 221 Notes 225 Bibliography 259 Index 291 Figures 1 Suicides reported in North Carolina newspapers, 1840–1893 29 2 Suicide methods reported in North Carolina newspapers, 1840–1893 34 3 Divorce cases in five North Carolina counties, 1820–1900 84 4 Divorces in North Carolina, 1867–1906 114 5 Percentage of divorces granted to men, 1867–1886 115 6 Bankruptcy filings per 10,000 free residents in 1842 157 7 Bankruptcy filings per 10,000 free residents in 1868 167 8 Boardinghouses and hotels in Wilmington, 1860–1905 189 9 Boardinghouses and hotels in Raleigh, 1869–1905 190 10 Map of Wilmington boardinghouses and hotels, 1865 and 1905 195 This page intentionally left blank ...