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> > Marriage under Adversity By Emily West > > *This timely piece of work reminds us that the rights we sometimes take > for granted have not always been available to all.* > > clip - > > As Tera Hunter points out in concluding her meticulously researched, > eloquent and accessible book, who can (and cannot) legally marry in any > society has always been subject to state sanction via the right to enter > wedlock and wider issues of legal citizenship. For example, only in the > twenty-first century have same-sex couples been able to marry on the same > footing as heterosexual ones. But as well as sexual affiliation, race and > ethnicity have shaped the contours of state policies on wedlock, largely > because of the exclusionary ethnic barriers to legal citizenship in the > United States. Hunter explores these contentious issues through the prism > of black marriages over the course of the nineteenth century. This > chronological spread is one of this impressive book’s strengths. Only by > tracking wedlock through slavery, the Civil War, emancipation, > Reconstruction, and then the era of Jim Crow segregation, can we fully > understand how the nature of black marriage changed over time. In addition > to her chronological breadth, Hunter also engages with a range of > perspectives on nineteenth-century black marriage. She includes the views > of enslaved and formerly enslaved people themselves, notwithstanding the > methodological challenges posed by a limited source base. She explores a > large amount of legal evidence and official policies related to marriage at > both the federal and state level. As such, Hunter successfully integrates > disparate historiographical strands of social, political and legal history. > This is a real achievement in itself. > > > full - http://common-place.org/book/vol-18-no-1-west/ > > > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
