(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION RECONSTRUCTION) Marriage License and

Sale 2239 - Lot 106

Price Realized: $ 1,320

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

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--RECONSTRUCTION.) Marriage License and certificate for "Martin Hamilton (Cold.) and Cynthia Prince (Cold.) Elaborately engraved certificate, 11x8-1/4 inches, docketed on the reverse. Gallatin County, Ky, 1868

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A fine example of an early Reconstruction combination marriage license and marriage certificate. Formal marriage ceremonies for slave couples were generally reserved for house servants. Slave owners might have a white minister or black plantation preacher perform the rite, and a large feast might take place in the "quarters." But, for the most part, marriage was more a question of mutual agreement, and more often than not, involved 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 impossibly to prove.