Property
by Valerie Martin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Valerie MartinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-04-13
ISBN: 0375713301
Number of pages: 196
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Property
Book Review: "A compelling story based on a false premise"
Summary: 4 Stars
I also found the story told in Valerie Martin's Property riveting and extremely well written. Unfortunately it is based on the false premise that in nineteenth-century Louisiana a married woman had no control over her property. This was indeed true in other states, in which the English-based system of common law prevailed, but Louisiana adhered to the Roman-French-Spanish-based system of civil law. The position of married women was much better in Louisiana.
A women never lost her maiden name. If "Marie X" married "Jean Baptiste Y," she might be informally called "Madame Y," but in official documents she was "Marie X, wife (or widow) of Y." She might sign her name "Marie Y nee X."
Money, jewelry, clothing, household goods, land, and slaves that were brought into the marriage by the wife were called her "dotal property." Her husband could not touch it. All property that the couple acquired together after the marriage was "community property," of which the wife owned half.
A married woman could engage in business with the consent of her husband. To get around this, she could petition the court for a separation of property. This was extremely common. In notarial documents one often sees references to "Marie X, wife separated in property of Jean Baptiste Y." The idea that married women couldn't own property on their own is nonsense--many married women were very active in business. A separation of property didn't mean that the couple no longer lived together, it was simply a formal means of protecting the wife's property from her husband's creditors.
A married woman could also petition for a separation from bed and board. This was more like a divorce, although neither party was free to remarry. The Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 allowed several grounds for such a separation. The husband could "claim a separation in case of adultery on the part of the wife," but the wife could only claim a separation when her husband "has kept his concubine in their common dwelling." Married persons could also separate "on account of excesses, cruel treatment, or outrages...if the ill treatment is of such a nature as to render their living together insupportable," for "public defamation," for "abandonment," or for "an attempt of one of the married persons against the life of the other."
The story of Manon in Property rings false on many levels. Unless she was totally lacking in gumption, she would not have been the trapped, helpless nonentity that she is portrayed to be. Any property given to her by her family at the time of her marriage, including the slave Sarah, belonged only to her. If Manon was troubled by the relationship between Sarah and her husband, she could have easily gotten Sarah out of the way by selling or freeing her. In addition, Manon could easily have obtained a separation of property and she clearly had grounds for a separation from bed and board because her husband "kept his concubine in their common dwelling." When Manon's mother died and she inherited money and a house in New Orleans, she had the perfect opportunity to escape since she was now financially independent. There was absolutely no reason for her to return to her husband's plantation.
Either Valerie Martin doesn't know the difference between civil and common law, or she chose to ignore it. If she'd set the story in any other state, Mississippi, for instance, it would have been believable, but not in Louisiana. Ironically, I bought my copy of Property at the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans, where Ms. Martin was part of a panel discussion of how closely a writer of historical fiction must adhere to the facts, and how so many people learn their "history" from novels and films. Anybody who reads Property without knowing Louisiana civil law will come away with a completely false idea of women's position in society.
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