Marriage Among Slaves

Slavery, in principie and in fact, annihilatcs the marringe relalion. lt knows no mnn as husband, no woman as wife. - It enjoins no duties, it confers no rights upon the partieslhat sustain this rclation. No man who is a Slave can nsscrt or maintain his right io cherish and protect ie wotnan whom he calis his wife: no Slave woman can assort and maintain her ight to obey the man whom she calis her ïusband. Lawful wedlock, with its rights and duties, does not exist among our enire Slave populatioi.. The testimony of nn esteemed personal friend, Rev. Wm. T. Alian, formerly of Huntsville, Alabnma, will give a olear view of what is law and fact on this subject. He says, "legnl marriage is unknown among the slavès, They sometimes have a marringe form ; generally none at all. The pastor of the Presby terian Church in Huntsville, Ala., hac two families of slaveswhen I left there. - One couple were married by a negro preacher - the man was robbed of his wife a number of months afterwards by he "owner." The other couple just took up together, without any form of marriage. They are both members of churches - the man a Baptist deacon, sober and correct ín his deportment. They have a large family of children - all children of concubinage - living in a minister's family." While Prof. Andrevs resided some years since in Carolina, he says, "an oíd negro carne to me one day, weeping so immoderately that for some time I could not clearly ascertain the cause of his distress. Peter had just then heard that his wife's master was about to sell her to a speculator." The Professor sought to consolo iiirh, when he replied - "This is my third wife; both of my other wives were sold to speculators, and were carried to theSouth, and I have never heard from tiiem ' sílice" Trulyhave theSavannah (Ga.) ' River Baptist Association said, whíle l speaking on Inis subject, "The Slaves are 1 votfree moral agenls, and a dissolution of llie marriage covenant by dcath, is not more cntirely without their consent and beyond their control, than by such . rat ion." Slnyery, in principie, denips to the Slave the right to privide for bis wife, defend her person from the grossest concéívntííe insult, or prevent a final separalion at the pleaoure of the Jawful master. Ifit be consistent wit h righteousness to prohibit marriage, then is Slavery in this respect riglit; but fit be esseníially wrong to make such prohibilion, then is Slavery essentialy wrong - sin in its very nature. In lhe estimation of llie Oíd School General Assembly, at its recent meeting in Cincinnati, that land must be a pollutcd one, where a widower is permkted to marry the sister of bis deccased wife: bul that cJmrch retains its veslal purity which fellowship American Slavery, which renders lawful marriage impossible, cncournges and sanctions, if it does not necessitate, a systcm of indiscriminate