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Lillian Harman

Released
Date of birth:23. 12. 1869
Date of death:05. 03. 1929
Age:59 Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:White
Era:1800s
State:Kansas
Time Imprisoned:
6 Months 15 Days
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Lillian Harman

Biography

Lillian Harman was an American free-thought and free-love activist, the daughter of Lucifer, the Light-Bearer editor Moses Harman. In September 1886, at the age of sixteen, she entered into an "autonomistic marriage" with the anarchist writer Edwin C. Walker — a union deliberately made without the sanction of church or state to protest the legal subordination of wives. The morning after the ceremony the couple were arrested under Kansas marriage law. Convicted in State v. Walker, Lillian was formally sentenced to forty-five days in the county jail but, like Walker, was held far longer because neither would pay the court costs; they were freed only after her father paid them in April 1887. She went on to edit radical journals and to serve as president of the British Legitimation League.

Case

Jefferson County Jail
Charges: Violating the Kansas marriage law.
Arrested: Sep 20, 1886
Sentenced: Oct 19, 1886
Incarcerated: Sep 20, 1886
Released: Apr 4, 1887
Sentence: Forty-five days (one and a half months) in the county jail, with release withheld until the court costs were paid. Held from September 20, 1886 until April 4, 1887 — about six and a half months — when Moses Harman paid the $113.80 in costs. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted under the Kansas marriage act; the convictions were upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court in State v. Walker (1887). Arrested September 20, 1886; sentenced October 19, 1886. Charges as recorded: Violating the Kansas marriage law — for their September 1886 "autonomistic" (free-love) marriage, entered without a license or clergy (State v. Walker, 36 Kan. 297).
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Colorado