04176nam 2200685Ia 450 991078079580332120230325002428.00-19-988697-01-282-38389-297866123838920-19-971651-X(CKB)2430000000010488(StDuBDS)AH24087025(SSID)ssj0000343720(PQKBManifestationID)12099452(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000343720(PQKBWorkID)10292420(PQKB)11213034(MiAaPQ)EBC3053579(Au-PeEL)EBL3053579(CaPaEBR)ebr10358517(CaONFJC)MIL238389(OCoLC)922969848(EXLCZ)99243000000001048820090611d2010 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccr'Til death or distance do us part[electronic resource] love and marriage in African America /Frances Smith FosterOxford ;New York Oxford University Press20101 online resource (xviii, 198 p.)Formerly CIP.Uk0-19-938970-5 0-19-532852-3 Includes bibliographical references.Adam and Eve, Antoney and Isabella -- Terms of endearment -- Practical thoughts, divine mandates, and the Afro-Protestant Press -- Rights and rituals -- Myths, memory, and self-realization -- Getting stories straight, keeping them real -- Alchemy of personal politics -- Me, Mende, and Sankofa : an epilogue.Most people believe that marriages were forbidden and families destroyed during the era of slavery in the United States; however, this book demonstrates that antebellum publications by African Americans for African Americans about themselves do not support these conclusions.Conventional wisdom says that marriage was rare or illegal for slaves and that if African Americans married at all, their vows were tenuous ones: "until death or distance do us part." It is believed that this history explains the dysfunction of the African American family to this day. In this groundbreaking book, Frances Smith Foster shows that this common wisdom is flawed as it is based upon partial evidence and it ignores the writings African Americans created for themselves. Rather than relying on documents produced for abolitionists, the state, or other biased parties, Foster draws upon a trove of little-examined alternative sources and in so doing offers a correction to this widely held but misinformed viewpoint. The works examined include family histories, folkloric stories, organizational records, personal memoirs, sermons and especially the fascinating and varied writings published in the Afro-Protestant Press of the times. She shows that "jumping the broom" was but one of many wedding rituals and that love, marriage and family were highly valued and central to early African American society. Her book offers a provocative new understanding of a powerful belief about African American history and sheds light on the roles of memory and myth, story and history in defining contemporary society and shaping the future.African AmericansMarriageHistoryAfrican AmericansMarriage customs and ritesHistoryEnslaved personsFamily relationshipsUnited StatesHistoryMarriage customs and ritesUnited StatesMarriageMoral and ethical aspectsUnited StatesUnited StatesSocial conditionsTo 1865African AmericansMarriageHistory.African AmericansMarriage customs and ritesHistory.Enslaved personsFamily relationshipsHistory.Marriage customs and ritesMarriageMoral and ethical aspects305.896073Foster Frances Smith1474997MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910780795803321Til death or distance do us part3817877UNINA