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(RECONSTRUCTION.)
Marriage License for Benjamin Petty,
Colored and Mary Robinson, Colored.
Partially printed document with engraved
border and vignette, accomplished by hand,
signed by Petty and Robinson, witnessed
and signed by the Clerk, Rod Perry and the
white minister, Benjamin Tiller; creases
where folded; docketed on the reverse.
Louisville, Kentucky, 7 November, 1871
[600/800]
A fine example of a combination marriage license
and certificate from the Reconstruction period.
Formal marriage ceremonies for slave couples were
generally reserved for house servants. Slave owners
might have a white minister or black plantation
preacher perform the rite, and a celebration might
take place in the “quarters.” But, for the most
part, marriage was more a question of mutual
agreement. The official marriage licenses and cer-
tificates of Reconstruction were extremely important in restoring basic human rights to tens of
thousands of couples who had been living together as de facto man and wife under slavery. Without a
legal instrument, the legitimacy of the children of ex-slaves and their rights to inheritance were impos-
sible to prove. The names of several witnesses appear on both the face of the certificate and on the
reverse in what seems to be their pencil signatures.
164