Marriage of enslaved people (United States)

Illustrations of the American anti-slavery almanac for 1840. New York, New York, Library of Congress

Marriage of enslaved people in the United States was generally not legal prior to the Civil War (1861–1865). African-Americans were considered chattel legally, and they were denied human or civil rights until slavery was abolished after the Civil War and with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Both state and federal laws denied, or rarely defined, rights to enslaved people.^[1]

Slave codes[]

Slave codes, were federal and state laws that controlled the legal status and condition of African Americans, started with legislation in 1705. They were treated like other forms of property, like farm equipment, cows, and horses. Slaves were prohibited into entering into any civil contracts and could not legally own or receive real or personal property. Anything that was possessed by an enslaved person was owned by their slaveholder. They were denied civil and political rights, and the ability to plan their own time and movement. It was illegal to teach enslaved people to read and write.^[1] The Supreme Court supported the principle that enslaved people were not entitled to constitutional protection because, as chattel property, they were not citizens of the United States in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1856.^[2]

In the North, marriages between enslaved people was legalized in some states. In New York, bondsmen and women were allowed to marry and their children were legitimate with the passage of the Act of February 17, 1809. Tennessee was the only slave state that allowed for marriage among enslaved people with the owner's consent. Instead of being chattel, Tennessee recognized the personhood of enslaved people, who had a legal status of being "agent[s] of their owners".^[3]

Unions[]

Quasi-marriages[]

Enslaved men and women entered into relationships with one another, based upon the knowledge that meaningful relationships were important to their survival. Initially, relationships were formed according to the customs of West Africa.^[4] There was an expectation of love, affection, and loyalty.^[5] "Marriage" between enslaved people reflected a chosen emotional bond and a committed conjugal relationship. Being in a quasi-marital relationship affected one's status in the community and helped define the nature of the relationship among those in black and white communities.^[5] One of the strongest arguments against slavery is that it made it difficult to manage marital and family relationships.^[4]

Unions involving an enslaved person or people were not legally binding.^[6] Couples who were emancipated might have their marriage solemnized, which made their children legitimate.^[7] Clerks were prohibited from issuing marriage licenses or recording marriages. In some places, ministers were prohibited from performing marriage ceremonies.^[8] A long term relationship with an enslaved person was often called a marriage, but it was a contubernium or quasi-marital relationship.^[8]

Unlike white couples, enslaved people did not have the protection of the law, the sanctity of the church, or the support the greater community to foment successful marriages. Because they were considered to be chattel, they had no legal standing. Their slaveholders made decisions about their lives, which meant that they did not have a sense of permanence when entering into a committed, intimate relationship.^[9] Quasi-marriages were not sanctioned by the church, and thus were at odds with the teachings of the Christian church regarding the roles of wives, husbands, and children.^[10] The longer that a couple and their children were together, the more likely it was that they would be separated. This was particularly the case after the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves went into effect on January 1, 1808, coupled with the cotton economy that drove the acquisition of enslaved people in the Deep South (at about the same time that tobacco farms in the Upper South transitioned to an economy based upon crops like wheat and corn that required fewer enslaved workers).^[11] Interstate slave trade increased to meet the varying needs of planter's crops. For instance, sugar plantations primarily operated with enslaved males because the work was so strenuous. One third of first marriages were disrupted when partners were separated due to the domestic slave trade. Relationships also suffered when family members were hired-out to other slaveholders for the long-term.^[12]

Ceremonies[]

An 1899 illustration of a broomstick wedding ceremony. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library

Within African American communities, couples who entered into unions were considered to be married.^[13] Marriages could be established as simply getting the slaveholders permission and sharing a cabin.^[14] If they shared vows, the wording had to be modified. The vow, "To have and to hold, in sickness and in health… til death do you part" was revised to allow for them being separated. For instance, "til death do us part" was revised to "til death or buckra (the white man) part you" or "til death or distance do you part".^[15]

Rarely, domestic servants might have formal marriage ceremonies performed by a black plantation preacher or a white minister. After honoring the couple, a feast and dance might follow. Such events were rare in general and when they occurred were more likely held for house servants.^[14]

Jumping the broom was a ceremony ritual conducted for an enslaved couple. The practices varied. In some cases, the broom was held about a foot off the ground and each partner jumped backward over the broom. Another practice was to have two brooms and each partner jumped over a broom while they held hands. The ritual helped couples feel "more married".^[14]

Enslaver's control[]

Plantation owners controlled quasi-marital unions, and could decide the fate of husbands, wives, and children at any moment.^[4] They decided whether families lived together, if they were sold away from one another, or if or when they could see one another.^[13][14] If the couples lived on different plantations, they were said to have a "broad" or an "abroad" marriage.^[14][16] Even though they committed to another, they were not necessarily allowed to live together.^[17] Depending upon the distance, they might visit one another on the weekend or stay with each other nightly. For slaveholders, broad marriages could make it more difficult to manage productivity and control resistance, if they became increasingly independent.^[14]

Enslavers might encourage marriages between black men and women on their plantation. A wealthy owner might buy the spouse of a broad marriage so that they would live together on their estate.^[14] Slave holders learned that it was in their best interest for their enslaved workers to be married and have families. It meant that people would be mollifed and less likely to run away.^[4]

Husbands, Wives, and Families sold indiscriminately to different purchasers, are violently separated-probably never to meet again, 1843, New York Public Library

When a slaveholder gave permission to a couple to have a relationship, it was essentially providing approval to breed, which would increase the number of slaves that they own and make more money for the enslaver.^[18] Enslaved women, whether married or not, were subject to rape by their owner, who benefited financially by fathering a number of children, with greater control as the biological father.^[19]

Husbands and fathers[]

Some men and women lived with their children in nuclear families. In most cases, though, enslaved fathers did not live with their family. In many ways, enslaved couples assumed typically female and male roles within the relationships, except that since their children and wife were subject to the whims of slaveholders, men had less control in the care of their family than free men with free family members.^[20]

Children[]

Illustration of Uncle Tom and his baby from Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

According to the law (partus sequitur ventrem), children born to an enslaved women were the property of her slaveholder.^[14] In many jurisdictions, once enslaved people in long-term relationships were emancipated or manumitted, their marriages were recorded and their children were deemed legitimate.^[21]

She would take me upon her knee and, pointing to the forest trees which were then being stripped of their foliage by the winds of autumn, would say to me, my son, as yonder leaves are stripped from off the trees of the forest, so are the children of the slaves swept away from them by the hands of cruel tyrants; and her voice would tremble with deep emotion, while the tears would find their way down her saddened cheeks. On those occasions she fondly pressed me to her heaving bosom, as if to save me from so dreaded a calamity, or to feast on the enjoyments of maternal feeling while se yet retained possession of her child.

— Henry Box Brown^[22]

When he was 15 years of age, Henry Box Brown was separated from his mother, father, brothers, and sisters upon the death of his slaveholder. He was sent to work at a tobacco factory in Richmond, Virginia owned by the son of his former owner. Brown had believed that he was to be freed upon his enslaver's death.^[23]

After the Civil War[]

Marriage of a colored soldier at Vicksburg by Chaplain Warren of the Freedmen's Bureau

The Thirteenth Amendment emancipated slaves, who were thus no longer considered chattel. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 defined the rights of freed people to own, sell, or lease personal and real property; enter into contracts; and to be entitled to basic human rights. They could also marry.^[2] After the Civil War, states defined how to evaluate whether long-term couples were married and what rights they had as married couples within their jurisdiction.^[24]

Thomas Nast, Emancipation, 1865, wood engraving print, King & Baird, printers, Philadelphia

After the end of the Civil War, freed men and women searched for family members that had been separated from them. In their search, they walked long distances and contacted a number of agencies.^[4][25] They followed the routes of former slave traders, contacted churches, and reached out to Freedmen's Bureau to locate their spouses that they might not have seen for years.^[25] One of the key rights that freed men and women chose to exercise was the right to marry, resulting in a plethora of African American marriages soon after the end of the war. There were a few, though, that felt that they were being forced to marry by missionaries or were concerned about obligations that they might be unknowingly taking on.^[4]

Major General Oliver Otis Howard was hired by President Andrew Jackson on May 30, 1865 to be the commissioner of the Freeman's Bureau, to aid in the Reconstruction of the District of Columbia, Confederate states and free states that bordered slave states.They worked in camps that were established by the military for former enslaved people. Associate commissioners were responsible hiring officers to record former slave marriages. Ordained ministers provided records of marriages that they had performed and solemnized other marriages.^[14]

The Bureau recorded marriages and preserved marital records of former enslaved men and women in registers, certificates, marriage licenses, and other records. States and other organizations also formalized long-term relationships.^[14] Ironically, blacks were prevented from obtaining legal marriages while enslaved, but they were "disproportionately punished" if they lived together without being married once they were free. Being married had become a moral and legal requirement for blacks in American society.^[26] Unaware that there would be legal ramifications, some African Americans who had been in quasi-marriages were prosecuted for choosing a different partner to legally marry once they were free.^[27]

Notable couples[]

Ellen and William Craft[]

Ellen and William Craft, fugitive slaves and abolitionists

Ellen and William Craft were both born into slavery and were separated from their parents at a young age. They cared for one another, but they would not enter into a marriage that would mean that she would bear a child who would be born into slavery. They hatched a plan to runaway. Ellen had a fair complexion, like her father, so she dressed up as a male slaveholder who traveled with William, who played the role of her slave. They successfully fled slavery and lived as man and wife.^[28]

Charlotte and Dick Green[]

Courtyard and interior structures at Bent's Fort

Charlotte and Dick Green were integral to the successful operation of Bent's Fort on the Santa Fe Trail, but they remained enslaved until Dick was rewarded for his participation in the military party that was sent out to avenge the death of Governor Charles Bent of the territory of New Mexico. The Greens were freed by William Bent, brother of Charles, in 1847. They then headed east back to Missouri.^[29]

Emeline and Samuel Hawkins[]

Sarah Ann and Benjamin Manson's marriage certificate from the Freedmen's Bureau

Emeline and Samuel Hawkins, an enslaved woman and a freed man and sharecropper, considered themselves a married couple. They lived together with their children. Their two eldest children were sold away from the family in 1839. Samuel had tried unsuccessfully to purchase the freedom of his wife. Four more children were threatened to be sold away from the family. With Samuel Burris, Samuel Hawkins planned the escape of his family. The family made it to Byberry Township, Pennsylvania, where they changed their last name to Hackett. They were reunited with their eldest sons, Chester and Samuel, who were apprentices in the area.^[30]

Sarah Ann and Benjamin Manson[]

Sarah Ann and Benjamin Manson were an enslaved couple from Wilson County, Tennessee. They lived as man and wife since 1843 and had sixteen children. They were legally married on April 19, 1866 and received a marriage certificate from the Freedmen's Bureau. The certificate was a symbol of their right to live together as a family.^[14][31]

See also[]

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• Marriage and procreation
  • Plaçage, interracial common law marriages in French and Spanish America, including New Orleans
  • Slave breeding in the United States
  • Sexual relations and rape of enslaved people
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  • Children of the plantation
  • Legitimacy (family law)
  • Non-paternity event
• Heritage
  • Issue (genealogy)
  • African American genealogy
  • Atlantic Creole

References[]

Sources[]

• Brown, Henry Box (1851). Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown. Lee and Glynn.
• Goring, Darlene (2006). "The History of Slave Marriage in the United States". The John Marshall Law Review. Louisiana State University (262).
• Hunter, Tera W. (2017). Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-23745-2.
• Hunter, Tera W. (1997). To 'joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-89309-2.