Cohabitation Records, are documents that list couples, often formerly enslaved, who were living together as husband and wife during slavery. These records became particularly important in the United States after the Civil War.
These records serve as valuable tools for researchers and descendants tracing African American ancestry, as they provide a rare glimpse into the personal lives of enslaved individuals whose experiences and relationships were often not formally documented during the era of slavery.
These records were created by the Bureau’s local field offices and provide detailed insights into the lives of formerly enslaved individuals, free African Americans, and impoverished white Southerners. 1865-1872
Section 1: Be it ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in convention assembled, That all marriages between freedmen and freedwomen, whether in a state of slavery or since their emancipation, heretofore solemnized by any one acting or officiating as a minister, or any one claiming to exercise the right to solemnize the rites of matrimony, whether bond or free, are hereby ratified and made valid, provided the parties are now living together as man and wife; and in all cases of freedmen and freedwomen who are now living together recognizing each other as man and wife, be it ordained that the same are hereby declared to be man and wife, and bound by the legal obligation of such relationship
(No. 252) An Act to prescribe and regulate the relation of Husband and Wife between persons of color. 5. Sec. 1. The General Assembly of the State of Georgia do enact:
That persons of color, now living together as husband and wife, are hereby declared to sustain that legal relation to each other, unless a man shall have two or more reputed wives, or a woman two or more reputed husbands. In such event, the man, immediately after the passage of this Act by the General assembly, shall select one of his reputed wives, with her consent; or the woman one of her reputed husbands, with his consent; and the ceremony of marriage between these two shall be performed.
If such man, thus living with more than one woman, or such woman living with more than one man, shall fail or refuse, to comply with the provisions of this section, he or she shall be prosecuted for the offence of fornication, or adultery, or fornication and adultery, and punished accordingly
Sec. 3 Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, who do now and have heretofore lived and cohabited together as husband and wife shall be taken and held in law as legally married, and the issue shall be taken and held as legitimate for all purposes.
In the March 1866 session of the North Carolina General Assembly, an Act was passed concerning negroes and persons of color. Justices of the Peace were to collect and record in the County Clerk’s office, a record of the cohabitation of former slaves to ratify their state of marriage.
The Court Clerk was required to maintain a record book for this purpose and to receive 25 cents per entry for his service. In Section 6, Chapter 40 of the Act, it was a misdemeanor if negroes did not record their marriage by September, 1866. This section of the Act was amended by Section 1, Chapter 70 (ratified March 1867), to extend the time of recording these marriages until January 1, 1868.
Sec, 5 . . . all free persons of color who were living together as husband and wife in this state, while in a state of slavery, are hereby declared to be man and wife, and their children legitimately entitled to an inheritance in any property heretofore acquired, or that my hereafter be acquired by said parents.
The Cohabitation Records, offically titled, "Register of Colored Persons, Augusta County, State of Virginia, Cohabiting Together as Husband and Wife," are a record of free African American families living in Virginia immediately after the end of the Civil War. The records were created by the Freedmen's Bureau in an effort to document the marriages of formerly enslaved men and women that were legally recognized by an act of the Virginia Assembly in February 1866.
Legalization of Slave Marriages: Pre-Civil War Era
The legalization of marriage for enslaved individuals in the United States varied by state and was primarily a consequence of the Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction era. Prior to these changes, enslaved people were not legally recognized to marry in slave states, as they were considered property and lacked legal personhood.
Slave Laws and Status: Under slave laws, enslaved people were considered property, not legal persons. This status denied them basic rights, including the right to legally marry. Slave marriages, if they occurred, were informal and not recognized by law.
Resistance and Informal Marriages: Despite the lack of legal recognition, enslaved individuals often engaged in their own forms of marriage ceremonies, which held significant cultural and personal importance. These ceremonies varied and often included rituals like “jumping the broom.”
Impact on Families: Slave owners frequently separated families, which was a brutal aspect of slavery. This lack of legal recognition for marriages and families facilitated the commodification and dehumanization of enslaved people.
©2023. Black Pearls of Genealogy. All Rights Reserved.
