Wife Selling: The 19th Century Alternative To Divorce
Marriages are first and foremost an economic arrangement, and the 19th century practice of wife selling only bolsters that argument. Wikimedia Commons A husband takes his wife and baby to the local market , intending to trade them both to the high bidder . Yes , this is the introduction to the 1886 Thomas Hardy novelThe Mayor of Casterbridge , but it was also a commonly practiced custom among the hapless of old England ....