Full Citation

Title: Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century

Citation Type: Book, Whole

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: Americans have long viewed marriage between a white man and a white woman as a sacred union. But marriages between African Americans have seldom been treated with the same reverence. This discriminatory legacy traces back to centuries of slavery, when the overwhelming majority of black married couples were bound in servitude as well as wedlock. Though their unions were not legally recognized, slaves commonly married, fully aware that their marital bonds would be sustained or nullified according to the whims of white masters. Bound in Wedlock is the first comprehensive history of African American marriage in the nineteenth century. Uncovering the experiences of African American spouses in plantation records, legal and court documents, and pension files, Tera W. Hunter reveals the myriad ways couples adopted, adapted, revised, and rejected white Christian ideas of marriage. Setting their own standards for conjugal relationships, enslaved husbands and wives were creative and, of necessity, practical in starting and supporting families under conditions of uncertainty and cruelty.

Url: https://books.google.com/books/about/Bound_in_Wedlock.html?id=iF4avgAACAAJ

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Authors: Hunter, Tera W

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Publisher Location: Cambridge, MA

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Race and Ethnicity

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