U.
S. Women's Legal History
Mississippi Married Women's Property Law (1839), Miss. Laws, 1839, ch. 46, p. 72. "An Act for the protection and preservation of the rights of Married Women. Section 1. Be it enacted, by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, That any married woman may become seized or possessed of any property, real or personal, by direct bequest, demise, gift, purchase, or distribution, in her own name, and as of her own property: Provided, the same does not come from her husband after coverture. Section 2. And be it further enacted, That hereafter when any woman possessed of a property in slaves, shall marry, her property in such slaves and their natural increase shall continue to her, notwithstanding her coverture; and she shall have, hold, and possess the same, as her separate property, exempt from any liability for the debts or contracts of the husband. Section 3. And be it further enacted, That when any woman, during coverture, shall become entitled to, or possessed of, slaves by conveyance, gift, inheritance, distribution, or otherwise, such slaves, together with their natural increase, shall enure and belong to the wife, in like manner as is above provided as to slaves wheich she may possess at the time of marriage. Section 4.And be it further enacted, That the control and management of all such slaves, the direction of their labor, and the receipt of the productions thereof, shall remain to the husband, agreeably to the laws heretofore in force. All suits to recover the property or possession of such slaves, shall be prosecuted or defended, as the case may be, in the joint names of the husband and wife. In the case of the death of the wife, such slaves descend and go to the children of her and her said husband, jointly begotten, and in cae there shall be no child born to the wife during such her coverture, then such slaves shall descend and go to the husband and to his heirs. Section 5. And be it further enacted, That the slaves owned by a feme covert under the provisions of this act, may be sold by the joint deed of husband and wife, executed, proved, and recorded, agreeably to the laws now in force in regard to the conveyance of the real estate of feme coverts, and not otherwise.
|