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<DIV class=left>We are fortunate that our local crack-pot was not
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<DIV class=timestamp>August 1, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">Putting an Antebellum Myth to
Rest</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By TERA W. HUNTER</H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>Princeton, N.J. </P>
<P>WAS slavery an idyllic world of stable families headed by married parents?
The recent controversy over “<A
title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/read-the-marriage-vow-pledge-signed-by-michele-bachmann-and-rick-santorum/2011/07/08/gIQAwT7K4H_blog.html CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/read-the-marriage-vow-pledge-signed-by-michele-bachmann-and-rick-santorum/2011/07/08/gIQAwT7K4H_blog.html">The
Marriage Vow</A>,” a document endorsed by the Republican presidential candidates
Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, might seem like just another example of how
racial politics and historical ignorance are perennial features of the election
cycle. </P>
<P>The vow, which included the assertion that “a child born into slavery in 1860
was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household
than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first
African-American President,” was amended after the outrage it stirred. </P>
<P>However, this was not a harmless gaffe; it represents a resurfacing of a
pro-slavery view of “family values” that was prevalent in the decades before the
Civil War. The resurrection of this idea has particular resonance now, because
it was 150 years ago, soon after the war began, that the government started to
respect the dignity of slave families. Slaves did not live in independent
“households”; they lived under the auspices of masters who controlled the terms
of their most intimate relationships. </P>
<P>Back in 1860, marriage was a civil right and a legal contract, available only
to free people. Male slaves had no paternal rights and female slaves were
recognized as mothers only to the extent that their status doomed their
children’s fate to servitude in perpetuity. To be sure, most slaves did all that
they could to protect, sustain and nurture their loved ones. Freedom and the
love of family are the most abiding themes that dominate the hundreds of
published narratives written by former slaves. </P>
<P>Though slaves could not marry legally, they were allowed to do so by custom
with the permission of their owners — and most did. But the wedding vows they
recited promised not “until death do us part,” but “until distance” — or, as one
black minister bluntly put it, “the white man” — “do us part.” And couples were
not entitled to live under the same roof, as each spouse could have a different
owner, miles apart. All slaves dealt with the threat of forcible separation;
untold numbers experienced it first-hand. </P>
<P>Among the best-known of these stories is that of Henry “Box” Brown, who
mailed himself from Richmond, Va., to Philadelphia in 1849 to escape slavery.
“No slave husband has any certainty whatever of being able to retain his wife a
single hour; neither has any wife any more certainty of her husband,” Brown
wrote in his narrative of his escape. “Their fondest affection may be utterly
disregarded, and their devoted attachment cruelly ignored at any moment a brutal
slave-holder may think fit.” </P>
<P>He had been married for 12 months and was the father of an infant when his
wife was sold to a nearby planter. After 12 more years of long-distance
marriage, his wife and children were sold out of state, sundering their family.
</P>
<P>Slave marriages were not granted out of the goodness of “ole massa’s” heart.
Rather, they were used as tools to keep slaves in line and to increase profits.
Many slaves were forced to marry people they did not choose or to copulate like
farm animals — with masters, overseers and fellow slaves. </P>
<P>Abolitionists and ex-slaves publicized excruciating details like these, but
the world view of pro-slavery apologists like James Henry Hammond, a senator
from South Carolina, could not make sense of motivations like Brown’s. “I
believe there are more families among our slaves, who have lived and died
together without losing a single member from their circle, except by the process
of nature,” than in most modern societies, Hammond claimed. Under the tutelage
of warm and loving white patriarchs like himself, slave families enjoyed
“constant, uninterrupted communion.” </P>
<P>Hammond’s self-serving fantasy world gave way to reality during the Civil
War, as slaves escaped in droves to follow in the footsteps of Union Army
soldiers. Although President Abraham Lincoln had promised that he would not
interfere with slavery in states where it already existed, he and his military
commanders were faced with the unforeseen determination of fugitives seeking
refuge, freedom and opportunities to aid the war against their masters. Gen.
Benjamin F. Butler developed a policy of treating slaves as “contrabands” of
war, inadvertently opening the door for many more to flee. In early August 1861,
Congress passed the First Confiscation Act, which authorized the army to seize
all property, including slaves, used by the rebellious states in the war effort.
</P>
<P>“Contrabands” became the first beneficiaries of a government appeal to
military officers, clergymen and missionaries to marry couples “under the flag.”
The Army produced marriage certificates for fugitive slave couples solemnizing
their marriages, and giving legitimacy to their children for the first time. But
it was not until after slavery was abolished that marriage could be secured as a
civil right. Despite resistance from erstwhile Confederates, Congress passed the
Civil Rights Act of 1866, which extended the right to make contracts, including
the right to marry, to all former slaves. </P>
<P>Why does the ugly resuscitation of the myth of the happy slave family matter?
Because it is part of a broad and deliberate amnesia, like the misleading
assertion by Sarah Palin that the founders were antislavery and the skipping of
the “three-fifths” clause during a Republican reading of the Constitution on the
House floor. The oft-repeated historical fictions about black families only
prove how politically useful and resilient they continue to be in a so-called
post-racial society. Refusing to be honest about how racial inequality has
burdened our shared history and continues to shape our society will not get us
to that post-racial vision. </P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P>Tera W. Hunter, a professor of history and African-American studies at
Princeton, is the author of “To ’Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives
and Labors After the Civil War.”
</P></DIV></NYT_AUTHOR_ID><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></NYT_TEXT>
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<DIV class="wrapper opposingFloatControl"><BR
style="CLEAR: both">_______________________________________________</DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>