Habeas Corpus and Child Custody in the Late 19th Century in the U.S

Jillian Fougeron Author

04/04/2021 Added

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Discovering how habeas corpus was used in child custody disputes in the 19th century.

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[00:00:00.720]Um, my name is Jillian Fougeron I'm currently a sophomore at UNL.
[00:00:04.680]I'm studying psychology and child, youth, and family studies.
[00:00:09.510]I'm currently working with Dr. Katrina.
[00:00:11.280]Jagodinsky our project focuses on transcribing and encoding.
[00:00:16.320]Thousands of habeas Corpus positions filed from 1812 to 1924 and
[00:00:21.210]six States in the American West.
[00:00:24.930]We transcribed these documents because often the handwriting's in cursive and it
[00:00:29.700]can be hard to read once we transcribe them.
[00:00:32.340]We like to encode them and put in key words, such as where the court was held,
[00:00:38.310]what court decision was made and who was involved during my
[00:00:43.110]time researching with Katrina Jagodinsky I decided to focus on
[00:00:48.030]habeas Corpus and how it was used in child custody decisions.
[00:00:53.460]This is because of my interest in child, youth,
[00:00:55.530]and family studies in psychology.
[00:00:57.780]Normally habeas Corpus is used the challenge of rest or confinement,
[00:01:02.010]but later on in 1867, it was also used for interpersonal confinement.
[00:01:07.350]In the late 19th century,
[00:01:08.910]habeas Corpus was commonly used by separated or divorced couples arguing over
[00:01:13.800]their child's custody.
[00:01:15.780]Many times it was actually used after a child custody decision
[00:01:20.760]had been reached,
[00:01:22.020]but parents would disobey the court order decision about their child's custody.
[00:01:27.150]Often kidnapping the child.
[00:01:30.690]It was also used to overturn previous child custody decisions
[00:01:36.360]and idea that I noticed when doing research over habeas Corpus and child custody
[00:01:41.280]was the idea of parens patriae.
[00:01:42.540]Parens Patriae betrayed translate to state as parents and that,
[00:01:46.210]and by the end of the 19th century,
[00:01:48.360]they idea of the state being responsible for children's sky rocketed.
[00:01:52.590]The legal system became more involved in child and family aspects,
[00:01:57.810]which has previously been private up until this point.
[00:02:01.380]This progressive movement eventually created the juvenile court system by the
[00:02:04.890]early 20th century. Let's see below all my poster.
[00:02:09.840]I have two court cases that give insight and how habeas Corpus and child custody
[00:02:14.610]work together with the aspect of parens patriae.
[00:02:18.660]The first case we'll look at is BM Klein versus Ella Klein,
[00:02:23.490]eight 1887 in Seattle.
[00:02:26.760]Eleanor Klein was Ellis client's mother and
[00:02:31.530]BM client's wife.
[00:02:33.540]Her physician advised her to leave her husband for the child's health and her
[00:02:37.380]own health.
[00:02:38.010]So she moved to the Seattle with her child claiming she would return when her
[00:02:41.610]health permitted be inclined, however, filed for divorce against her,
[00:02:46.260]instead of waiting for her to come back and filed a petition for his daughter's
[00:02:50.160]custody petitioning for her and her rights to be taken away from her mother.
[00:02:56.310]The court decided in the end to grant custody, to grant custody,
[00:03:00.580]to Eleanor because of Ellis state of health,
[00:03:03.490]the court claimed that the child needed a mother's care.
[00:03:07.000]A policy that became known as tender years doctrine tender years
[00:03:11.950]doctrine is a principle and family law that started in the late 19th
[00:03:16.840]century.
[00:03:18.670]It was the assumption that a mother should have custody of a child during a
[00:03:22.840]child's tenders years.
[00:03:26.050]The next court document that we'll be looking at is Mary Lefebvre versus T. Lefebvre
[00:03:30.220]in 1888 in Seattle.
[00:03:33.370]It started when Mary Lefebvre divorced her husband T. Lefebvre due to his violent
[00:03:37.990]behavior. The court decided because of this man's violent behavior,
[00:03:41.980]that she would have custody of their child.
[00:03:44.680]Mary moved out and gain financial independence.
[00:03:48.340]But while she was working T. Lefebvre forcibly,
[00:03:50.770]took their child and traveled around the country with him so that they couldn't
[00:03:54.820]be found.
[00:03:56.320]Mary in turn filed a petition for habeas Corpus to once again have
[00:04:01.060]custody of her child.
[00:04:02.530]The court decided that her ex husband had to return the child to her.
[00:04:08.020]This is a strong example of how habeas Corpus was used to reinforce child
[00:04:12.160]custody laws in the 19th century.
[00:04:16.210]Both of these cases are important because they give us insight on how divorce
[00:04:20.320]and child custody was handled in the 19th century before child
[00:04:25.060]and divorce custody laws have fully evolved.
[00:04:28.300]It also gives us insight on how directly involved the us court system has been
[00:04:32.350]in family matters in child welfare. During this era,
[00:04:36.010]these cases also display on how the idea of parents by trade started to
[00:04:40.990]affect the court system and reveal that family disputes are a
[00:04:45.130]longstanding in American history.
[00:04:47.200]Despite popular belief with this information,
[00:04:50.920]we can ask further questions such as how did family law further evolve
[00:04:55.990]after this period?
[00:04:58.150]What were the determining factors for the court deciding who was the best
[00:05:01.420]guardian of the child? And did it have anything to do with gender?
[00:05:05.290]These are all things that we can look into with this research.
[00:05:10.180]I appreciate your time and your attention.
[00:05:12.580]Thank you for listening to my presentation.

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Habeas Corpus and Child Custody in the Late 19th Century in the U.S

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