In tender consideration : women, families, and the law in Abraham Lincoln's Illinois

Nearly one-fifth of Abraham Lincoln's cases involved women, and during the twenty-five years of his legal career thousands of women appeared in Illinois courts as litigants, criminal defendants, witnesses, and spectators.

Drawing on the rich resources of a DVD version of Lincoln's complete legal papers, Daniel Stowell's "In Tender Consideration" scans the full range of family woes that antebellum Americans took to the law.

Through the stories of dozens of individuals who took legal action to obtain a divorce, contest a will, prosecute a rapist, or assert rights to family property, this volume illuminates the legal status of women and children in Illinois and their experiences with the law in action.

These cases also highlight Lincoln's life in law and raise intriguing questions about the influence of his legal profession on his subsequent political one.