Putting an Antebellum Myth to Rest
Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch
By TERA W. HUNTER
Published: August 1, 2011
Princeton, N.J.
WAS slavery an idyllic world of stable families headed by married
parents? The recent controversy over "The Marriage Vow," 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
"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.
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.
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."
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