Note 259 — Chapter XXVII · SLAVERY

Goodell, American Slave Code, p. 111. In 1835 the query was presented to a Baptist Association of ministers, “whether, in case of involuntary separation of such a character as to preclude all future intercourse, the parties may be allowed to marry again?” The answer was, “that such separation among persons situated as our slaves are, is civilly a separation by death, and they believe that, in the sight of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such cases would be to expose the parties not only to greater hardships and stronger temptations, but to church censure for acting in obedience to their masters.” Incidentally here the fact leaks out that slave cohabitation is enforced by the authority of the masters for the increase of their human chattels (Goodell, Slavery and Anti-Slavery, p. 185).