Wife Selling in Victorian England
Remember the show wife swap?
Well, that was basically Victorian England.
Even now in some communities and religions, divorce is looked down upon as unsavoury, or wrong, and great lengths are taken to avoid it. So go back a few hundred years and add on the British sense of propriety, traditional values and the belief that women were property and you can imagine the pearl-clutching that suggesting divorce would induce (unless, you know, you were the King of England or something). Referencing Henry VIII here.
Traipsing your wife around like a side of beef, however, was totally fine.
Women sold as possessions at market places was a practice that began in the 17th century and persisted right through the Victorian era till approximately the early 1900s, with the last recorded instance occurring in 1913. At the end of the day, even without the stigma, divorce was extremely expensive and simply out of reach to the poor and working class members of society and until 1857 wasn’t even possible without a Private Act of Parliament; and you can imagine how often that happened.
#victorianera #history #wifeselling #historychannel #historydocumentary #weirdhistory
DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com
Scriptwriter: Natasha Martell – https://7strangethings.com/
Video Editor & Motion Graphics: Abhishek Sharma
Voice-over Artist: Chris Redish
Music: Motionarray.com
Copyright © 2021 A Day In History. All rights reserved.
