The Divorce Colony: Why Women Fled to South Dakota in the 1880s to End Their Troubled Marriages

History Unplugged Podcast · Aug 25, 2022 · 47m

No-fault divorce laws began spreading across the globe in the 1970s, in which neither party had to prove wrong-doing. Before this time, somebody had to prove that the other party breached the marital contract, typically through infidelity or desertion. Basically, it was shockingly difficult to get divorced. For a woman in the late 19th century, there was only one place in the country to reliably get a divorce: Sioux Falls, otherwise known as the “Divorce Colony,” a place where the land and the laws had not yet been tamed.

To explore this topic further is today’s guest April White, author of…