Looking Back: Celebrating African American Weddings during the Civil War

By: Leah Jenkins, Assistant Researcher

Marriage assumed an important role in enslavement and emancipation. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans were barred from legal marriage. White citizens considered enslaved people morally and legally unfit to marry, and by denying marriage, enslaved individuals were chattel devoid of civil or human rights. Despite statutes prohibiting marriage, many enslaved couples lived as husband and wife after undertaking wedding celebrations.

The unofficial weddings consisted of couples jumping over brooms, symbolizing entering the marriage. Elaborate and prolonged ceremonies were marked by feasting, music, dancing and gifts. Marriage was a cultural, moral and spiritual union, but despite being married in the eyes of the Lord, they were not in the eyes of the law. The Federal Government opened legal marriage and radically adapted the social and racial order of the United States with constitutional amendments. Marriage marked freedom and acceptance, unchaining African Americans from centuries of enslavement.

References:

• https://www.aaihs.org/slave-and-free-black-marriage-in-the-nineteenth-century/

• https://academic.udayton.edu/race/04needs/family03.htm

• https://savingplaces.org/stories/antebellum-plantation-weddings-among-enslaved-women-and-men