'Til Death or Distance Do Us Part: Love and Marriage in African America

by Frances Smith Foster

Conventional wisdom tells us that marriage was illegal for African Americans during the antebellum era, and that if people married at all, their vows were tenuous ones: "until death or distance do us part." It is an impression that imbues beliefs about black families to this day. But it's a perception primarily based on documents produced by abolitionists, the state, or other partisans. It doesn't tell the whole story.

Drawing on a trove of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199389705
• ISBN13: 9780199389704
• Release Date: August 2014
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"