For post-war marriages, check with Freedmen's Bureau records, available
through the National Archives. The Bureau made it its business to validate
pre-existing unions, and ratified and recorded new marriages as well.

Gene Betit

On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 4:29 PM, Valos, Troy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Good Afternoon Alyson,
>
> I'm thinking these mixed-race marriages are going fall in the category of
> common law marriages.  I suspect even after the Civil War, couples wanted
> to keep it relatively under the radar.  There seems to be a few mixed race
> "marriages" prior the Civil War.  You have the case of Robert Lumpkin and a
> few others.  In researching Norfolk's role in the domestic slave trade, I
> have found a slave trader (1840s-1860s) who had an African American "wife"
> and two children.   I don't know if this type of marriage/coupling was
> based on genuine feelings of love and commitment or based on darker
> motives.   From the research I have done on Norfolk slave traders, there is
> very little to no surviving papers to speak to their business activities or
> much less their personal life.  Everything found is either slave manifests,
> slave ads, or bill of sales.   I don't have the evidence to speak to the
> type of marriage this trader built his relationship on.
>
> As for resources....
>
> You could consult the counties/cities' 1800s marriage registers that
> genealogists have abstracted and transcribed.   Quite a few of the titles
> will have the data arranged in tables and typically shows the race of the
> couple.   From Norfolk County, there are a few books like Norfolk County,
> Virginia marriage licenses (1850-1899) by Sharon Rea Gable and Truitt M
> Bonney.   http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/86079530
>
> You could also search the newspapers on LVA's Virginia Chronicle site to
> see if there were mixed race marriages were mentioned in the articles.  You
> will have to play around with the search terms to see what words were used
> to describe this type of relationship.  http://virginiachronicle.com/
>
> Lastly, check the Virginia Historical Index or aka "Swem's Index" to see
> if there were any article done on the subject.   (Swem, E. G. Virginia
> Historical Index. Gloucester [Mass.]: P. Smith, 1965.
> http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/905288945 )  You will need to look in JSTOR
> or similar database that holds the Virginia Magazine of History and William
> & Mary Quarterly to see if the newer issues have any articles about mixed
> race marriages.
>
> Good luck with your research.  It just might show another side of Virginia
> daily life that has been lost to history.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Troy Valos, MA, MSIS
> Special Collections Librarian
> Sargeant Memorial Collection
> Slover Library, Norfolk Public Library
> 235 East Plume Street
> Norfolk, Virginia 23510
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alyson Taylor-White
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 11:39 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VA-HIST] Slave marriages and postbellum mixed race marriages
>
> Hi Listers!  My class at University of Richmond yesterday for Osher was
> based on the tours I've given since last fall of Richmond's slave trade
> called Southern Slave Saga, from Prejudice to Progress. The adult students
> had some amazing questions, and the ones that intrigued me (that also
> stumped me) were about slave marriages before freedom came and postbellum
> marriages of mixed race couples like Robert and Mary (his former slave and
> mother of their many children) Lumpkin. Prior to 1865 the marriage of
> slaves seems to have been a community-church or extralegal event in
> Virginia. This reminds me of the commitment ceremonies in recent times of
> same sex couples. Also, where would one find a record of marriages from
> April 1865 on in Richmond, Virginia?  Was there a rush to the legal altar
> once the impediments had been removed?  And was there a window of
> opportunity where couples like Robert and Mary Lumpkin could get married
> before the legal restrictions against mixed race marriages were enacted? If
> anyone knows where to start looking for answers or is doing research along
> these lines, please let me know, off list if you prefer. Thanks!  Alyson
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> Alyson L. Taylor-White
> (804) 920-2783
>
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