Beschreibung:

Title: Printed and handwritten Marriage License and (attached) Marriage Certificate for Benjamin Petty and Mary Robinson "Colored", "legally solemnized" and signed by (white) Minister Benjamin Tiller, Warsaw, Kentucky, November 7, 1871 Author: Place: Kentucky Publisher: Date: November 7, 1871 Description: Printed and hand-written document. 25x20 cm (10x8"). Signed by Tiller and Clerk Rod Perry. While there had been informal recognition of marriages under slavery, not until the end of the Civil War did southern states such as Kentucky pass laws allowing ex-slaves to “intermarry with each other in the same manner and under the same regulations that are provided by law for white persons.” Thus rare marriage certificates such as this did not appear until the Reconstruction era, signed by white ministers like the Rev. Tiller, who had been performing “colored” marriages after his Church was headquarters of the Ohio regiment that occupied the city during the war. Dramatic memento of the first legal recognition of African-American matrimony in former Confederate slave plantation territory. Lot Amendments Condition: Some yellowing and creasing; very good. Item number: 234020