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

Jillian Fougeron Author

04/04/2021 Added

52 Plays

Description

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

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[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.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

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

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments