Author:
Hunter, Tera W. author.
Edition Statement:First Harvard University Press paperback edition.
ImprintCambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019.
Description404 pages : illustrations, genealogical table ; 23 cm.
Note:Introduction: The marriage certificate -- "Until distance do you part" -- "God made marriage, but the White man made the law" -- More than manumission -- Marriage "under the flag" -- A civil war over marriage -- Reconstructing intimacies -- "The most cruel wrongs" -- Hopes and travails at century's end -- Epilogue: Legacies and challenges.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"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, but it does not end there. 'Bound in Wedlock' is the first comprehensive history of African American marriage in the nineteenth century. Drawing from plantation records, legal documents, and personal family papers, it reveals the many creative ways enslaved couples found to upend white Christian ideas of marriage."--Back cover.
