"Go and Live Together Again and Try to be Happy": Gender, Class, and Race in Marital Disputes in the British Police Courts, 1870–1940.

This article examines how lower-level British courts (magistrates' courts, police courts, and petty sessions) adjudicated domestic violence cases involving working-class mixed-race couples between 1870 and 1940, focusing on the interplay of gender, class, and race. It finds that gender and class norms predominantly shaped legal outcomes, with magistrates favoring reconciliation over separation due to economic realities, while race had limited direct impact on court decisions but was heavily racialized in newspaper coverage, especially during periods of racial tension such as the 1919 race riots. The press often portrayed people of color using racist stereotypes and sensationalized vice-related crimes (e.g., drug dealing, sex work), aligning with magistrates only when domestic violence intersected with such offenses, which paradoxically normalized marital violence. Women of color married to white men faced particular legal and social disadvantages, and higher-class men of color had better legal outcomes. Overall, the study highlights the complex dynamics between law, media, and social attitudes in shaping the experiences of mixed-race working-class couples confronting domestic violence in early twentieth-century Britain.