3391

1824 Ohio Court Case: Slander Re Loose Morals & Possible Prostitution [186298]

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1824 Ohio Court Case: Slander Re Loose Morals & Possible Prostitution [186298]
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Portage County, Ohio, early slander case re. accused prostitution 1824-1826
Case of Mary Viets v. John & Harriet Singletary
This collection paints a portrait of the tension and drama of society, sexuality, and the law in early 1800s America. Mary Viets’ story demonstrates the power and influence of gossip, and is a fascinating case study of its impact on the women of the era. It demonstrates how a woman could, at times, use the power of the law to take control of her own story – to demonstrate, as Mary Viets did, that she was “a good, true, honest, just, and faithful citizen of [her] state.” --
The Viets v. Singletary Slander Case collection consists of over 50 documents dating from 1824 to 1826 documenting a dramatic chapter in the early history of Portage County, Ohio. Once described as “a person destitute of chastity”, Portage County citizen Mary Viets had been accused of everything from being “guilty of improper familiarities” with a steamboat captain during a river voyage to “being in a family way” with the child of an unidentified man; when she was unable to put up with these accusations any longer, Viets decided to take her reputation into her own hands and take her accusers to court on the charge of slander. Her accusers, John and Harriet Singletary (both b. 1789), were a married couple hailing from Worcester, Massachusetts and Middletown, Connecticut respectively. In the early 1800s, they settled in Aurora, Ohio, where they would first meet Mary, who herself hailed from Massachusetts; born in the town of Beckett in August 1802, she was only 21 years old when her case began. (Biographical information on plaintiff and defendants sourced from Ancestry.)
With the testimony of at least 30 citizens of both Portage County, Ohio, where the plaintiff and defendants lived, as well as Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the plaintiff’s native home, Viets won her case; three defendants were collectively compelled to pay her a whopping $1548.74, a sum equivalent to almost $50,000 today. JRM

SUMMARY
The Mary Viets Slander Case Collection consists of over 50 items, organized within a single binder. The majority of these items are handwritten documents, but some mass-produced printed documents with details such as dates and names written in by hand are also included. These items are all dated from 1824 to 1826. All depositions are labelled clearly with the name of the individual giving the deposition; all non-deposition documents are labelled with a brief summary or description of the document’s contents. The documents are sorted by topic into five primary sections.


The collection consists of:
• Section 1: Official printed documents of the court
o Verification that witnesses attended court to provide testimony and are entitled to payment for their time (6 pieces)
o Summons to provide testimony in the Viets v. Singletary case (5 items)
o Summons for the defendants to appear before the court (1 item)
• Documents relating to or summarizing the proceedings of the case
o Handwritten summary of the case
o Statement written by defendants to plaintiff Mary Viets
o Contract affirming debt of $1548.74 to be paid to the plaintiff by the defendants
o List of witnesses for both prosecution and defense along with their associated court fees
o Additional calculated court fees
• Writings by Sloan P. Humphrey, attorney for the defendants
o Humphrey’s list of exceptions for the case
o List of depositions excepted by plaintiff Mary Viets
o Statement from Humphrey asserting his clients’ innocence
o Humphrey describes verdict of case (defendants guilty on 4 counts)
• All depositions from Viets v. Singletary case
o Handwritten depositions, each labelled with name of individual giving testimony (23 items containing testimony of 30 individuals)
• Miscellaneous
o Documents from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, mentioning Mary Viets’ name
o Fragments (3 items)
[ Portage County Ohio