Given the historical association of broomstick weddings with marginalized groups and lower classes in Europe and the United States, it’s not surprising to learn that in order to suit their needs, some enslaved people willingly adopted the practice from the poor whites who surrounded them. However, other recollections of slave weddings suggest their communities often did exhibit control and agency over their varied wedding ceremonies, including those involving the broomstick ritual. Some enslaved couples even adapted their wedding vows to accommodate their precarious condition, vowing to remain married until "death or distance" would part them. More than thirty percent of enslaved persons’ first marriages were dissolved, for example, due to the operations of the domestic slave trade after the Revolutionary War. Enslaved persons had no marital rights and those who married could be severed from their spouses at a whim’s notice since their owners had every right to gift, loan, collateralize, hire out, or sell them without explanation or warning. While it is celebrated today, the broomstick may have served to remind enslaved couples that their marriages were perpetually vulnerable to dissolution at the whims of their owners. Some slaveholders, in fact, unceremoniously introduced what they viewed as an old pagan custom to their enslaved laborers with more than a hint of paternalism and derision. Once in the United States, white slave owners seemingly imposed the foreign custom upon couples who desired a symbolic ritual, according to Bosses and Broomsticks: Ritual and Authority in Antebellum Slave Weddings. The Welsh, in particular, sustained the ritual, at least until the 1840s, and carried the tradition to the American South, where many of them settled, especially during the 19th century. Rural Anglo-Saxons embraced the practice as well. Pre-Christian Roma and Celtic communities in the British Isles were known for jumping the broom to seal their wedding vows. Likely, the tradition of jumping the broom traveled from Britain to the colonies. However, a 2020 study of 378 testimonies about enslaved weddings revealed that only 28 percent made references to broomstick rituals, while 34 percent described no ceremony at all, and 38 percent mentioned other ceremonial rites entirely. Like Roots shows, some enslaved couples, when permitted to marry, did jump the broom with pledges of everlasting love. In recent years, I found scholarly evidence confirming my long-held hypothesis of the broomstick wedding’s origins. Felicitously, the broom was in her mother’s possession at the time, and I was able to examine the sacred heirloom-carefully hand-crafted and preserved for over six generations. A blue ribbon was tied around the broom with each couple’s names inscribed. The family's broom had been passed along from one couple to another across generations. Immediately, a Jewish student of Polish heritage said her family had a long history of jumping the broom. I confessed that I actually believed the custom originated in Europe. During a class lecture, my students and I discussed an assigned reading that addressed the tradition. My suspicion of the custom’s European origins grew when I taught at Macalester College in St. After both respond affirmatively, she invites the bride and groom to “jump over the broom into the land of matrimony.” She then places the broom on the earthen floor in front of the couple and asks if they are confident about their decision to marry. Gripping the broomstick tightly, she shifts the broom up and down as she marches around the couple, soliciting prayers for preservation of their marriage. An elderly woman parades around the couple with a specially prepared broom, adorned with red and gold ribbons. Kunta Kinte and Belle, both enslaved, cement their wedding vows by jumping the broom. In Roots's third episode comes a rare moment of tenderness. The series chronicled the life of Kunta Kinte through his capture from Africa and enslavement in the 18th and 19th century American South. Viewed by an estimated 85 percent of American households, Roots is considered one of the most impactful shows of all time. I was in elementary school when the Emmy award-winning miniseries, Roots, aired in 1977. “Hearst Magazines and Verizon Media may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |