An emotional biography of spousal abandonment: crisis and identities among women admitted to the <em>Casa de Misericordia</em> in Barcelona (eighteenth century)

Abstract

One way of gaining insight into the lives of lower-class women who were abandoned by their husband during the early modern age is to analyse the admission files of urban care institutions. Indeed, although poverty and a lack of work were the primary reasons for seeking shelter in these places, the information contained within their admission files also reveals the role played by other challenges such as spousal abandonment. In this paper, and with the aim of shedding light on the emotional dimension of spousal abandonment, I examine the files relating to women admitted to the <em>Casa de Misericordia</em> in Barcelona during the eighteenth century. The statements made when seeking to justify the request for shelter, and which are recorded in the files, evidence the impact of the abandonment they had experienced in the home.