Since divorce law is a state issue, with different jurisdictions, it is hardly possible to make an overarching reponse applicable across the board. Perhaps some specific follow-ups after a more general overview, which is not applicable to all states, for example, South Carolina prior to 1950 had no existing grounds for divorce, New York passed no-fault divorce as late as 2010, and by then, mutiple states were already engaged in countering no-fault divorce laws with the reverse proposals, like Michigan. These are all interesting topics by themselves.
So, before we look at some interesting and notorious cases, yes, divorces did include slanders, and State supreme courts on various times delivered some opinions on them. For example;
Supreme court of Illionis in 1874;
Cruel treatment does not always consist of actual violence. There are words offalse accusation that inflict deeper anguish than physical injuries to the personmore enduring and lacerating to the wounded spirit of a gentle woman, thanactual violence to the person, though severe.
Supreme court of Oregon;
To charge a woman, in the presence and hearing of others, with the commission of the crime of adultery, isto render her subject to the gross insults of lustful men who may hear and believe the rumor, which, whether true or false, tends to rob her of her good name, alienate her friends and acquaintances, and deprive her of their society and companionship.
Mid 19th century, the issue was whether a false allegation of adultery can be the grounds for a divorce, and states again differed, but a notable opinion from Texas Supreme court where such allegation was altogether a sufficient ground for divorce;
And why should it not be so held? What are wounds to the person as compared with those that affecthe mind? The former may be healed; the latter endure for a life-time. Of all the treasures cherished by a woman, her reputation for chastity is the dearest. "It is the immediate jewel of her soul"; and when an attempt is made by her husband, who should be her protector, to rob her of it; cruelty has reached its utmost limit.
Each of these states have, in a sense, rich national legislature, and its development and implementation in cases themselves. So, not to go on too wide a tangent, one of the more interesting cases was in 1942, Kreyling v. Kreylin, and the opinion of Court of Chancer, New Yersey, where the plaintiff, a wive, filled suit on the grounds of desertion, desertion from marital duty
Where, as in this case, the defendant husband solely for his own personal selfish convenience, or as he puts it, so that he may enjoy the luxuries oflife, insists upon contraception to prevent his wifefrom becoming a mother, he being the active agentin the use of the contraceptive device over hercontinued protests and against her will, such conduct, persisted in willfully, obstinately andcontinually for two years, is cause for divorce on the ground of desertion.
Unjustified refusal of natural sexual intercourse,persisted in willfully, obstinately and continually for a period of two years, is a ground for divorce for the cause of desertion.
The Walker Divorce Case of 1854, where both parties mutually accused each other for adultery, the case was dragged through seventeen open court session over six months, accusations of "ravished the virtue of every women in New York” to the opposite of "wanton woman" by lawyers representing the parties themselves. With exception of one juror, Miss Walker was found innocent.
Or the Beardlsley divorce case in 1860, where the plaintiff, the husband, issued for divorce on the grounds of wife´s bigamy. There are stories of conspiracies where husbands would pay another man to marry this wife, or to get a wife to commit adultery, to get grounds for divorce and later remarry.
Cases of also ended up in hung juries, where both parties with mutual accusation of adultery, husband´s brother for her, brother´s wife for him, and accusationthat a child might be his, was the situation in notorious case of Peter and Mary Strong, 1865, New York City Superior Court, where public proceeding were covered by local media, New York Times.
Particular defenses developed, somewhat reducible in their basic forms;
( 1 ) By establishing the likewise fault of the other party, no party could obtain a divorce,
( 2 ) The guilty parted tried to demonstrate a consent to the fault by the other party,
( 3 ) The guity party on variety of reasons tried to demonstrate, conditionally or not, forgiveness of the fault.
One can see where the first line could be potentially motivating for potentially false accusation, though I would recuse to try to estimate a ratio of cases where false accusation would occur, which would be quite difficult to estimate, harder to confirm, and with significant state differences, not to mention in certain states Courts of Chancery ( or Equity ) handled the matter, which results in different procedures.
These are the numbers for Illinois circuit court for Kane County and several neighboring counties.^(1) 1837-1869, 281 were granted, with absolute high during the 50s, of these, women were plaintiffs in 61 percents. The most common cause for both sexes was desertion ( some various causes could be linked to it, like adultery, bigamy, etc. ) The second most common cause for women was cruelty, while for men adultery. Women had 74% sucess, men 80%.
In a few words, yes, slander did happen, false accusations did happen, but it seems that majority of divorces were indeed based on somewhat legitimate grounds by the standards of the time, but the reservation and perceived fraudulent means of obtaining a divorce certainly did not go unnoticed, and augmenting in first half of the twentieth century, saw significant attention, and so did Vernier in American Family Laws characterize the situation, "well known that the parties often seek to evade the statutory limitations and that there is great danger of perjury, collusion, and fraud" in case where both parties agree, but collude against the court with fabricated claims. While at the turn of the century, when a woman was the plaintiffs, desertion claims still dominated, the adultery basis gave substantial ground to cruelty as the reason,^(2) and showed higher adaptation to existing legal limitation to increase the chances of success.
Hopefully, this was answered to some satisfaction, and I am always preparded to expand on some of these points, if able to.
1.Looney, Rebecca. “Migration and Separation: Divorce in Kane County, 1837-1869.” Illinois Historical Journal, vol. 89, no. 2, 1996, pp. 70–84.
2.Roehrkasse, A. F. (2019). States of Disunion: American Marriage and Divorce, 1867–1906. UC Berkeley