(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION RECONSTRUCTION) Combined Marriage Li

Sale 2408 - Lot 113

Price Realized: $ 422

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--RECONSTRUCTION.) Combined Marriage License and Marriage Certificate for Henderson Carter (colored) and Rebecca Marshall (colored). Folio leaf, 13 x 8 inches, decoratively printed utilizing a variety of the printer's fonts. Docketed on the reverse '309, Recorded 1869.' Talbot County, GA, 19 January 1870

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An attractive example of a Reconstruction marriage license and certificate, using a variety of printer's fonts. Formal marriage ceremonies for slave couples were generally reserved for house servants if at all. Slave owners might have a white minister or a black plantation preacher perform the rite, and a celebration might be allowed in the slave quarters. But for the most part, marriage was a question of mutual agreement, more often than not involving children. The official marriage licenses and certificates of Reconstruction were extremely important in restoring basic human rights to tens of thousands of couples who had been living together as man and wife under slavery. Without a legal instrument, the legitimacy of the children of ex-slaves and their rights to inheritance were often impossible to prove.