Family law and 'the great moral public interests' in Victorian Cape Town, c. 1850-1902

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Family law and 'the great moral public interests' in Victorian Cape Town, c. 1850-1902
Author:	Malherbe, Vertrees C.
Year:	2010
Periodical:	Kronos: Journal of Cape History (ISSN 0259-0190)
Issue:	36
Pages:	7-27
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	South Africa The Cape
Subjects:	illegitimate children family law social conditions social history 1850-1899
External link:	http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/kronos/v36n1/v36a01.pdf
Abstract:	This paper investigates out-of-wedlock births in South Africa's Cape Town during the period between c. 1850-1902, when patterns of sexual behaviour and family formation, shaped by the history of slavery, came under the scrutiny of policymakers steeped in British traditions and jurisprudence, who perceived the way forward from poverty and slums in terms not of extending rights but of moral reform. Examining legal enactments and social developments where they impacted on marriage, divorce, concubinage and related matters, the paper asks to what extent the Cape's family law was reshaped by the altered circumstances, and how the welfare of out-of-wedlock children and their parents (or caretakers) was affected. Notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]