Temporary Security
Sanctioned or unsanctioned marriages offered enslaved men and women temporary security and stability. Even in regions where the Catholic Church recognized and encouraged marriages among bondspeople, marital unions often depended on obtaining permission from slave owners.
Archival records provide an abundance of examples that show how slave owners created all sorts of obstacles that ultimately either hindered or fully prevented enslaved people from marrying. Still, bondspeople fought back and challenged these prohibitions. Also counteracting these obstacles, in Brazil and the West Indies, enslaved people created blood and virtual families.As explored in this chapter, in some instances, bondsmen and bondswomen had opportunities to select partners of their choice. But in many cases, their owners selected their spouses. Families and marriages among enslaved people were never a given, and even after many years of marital union, husbands and wives could be sold separately. Even in countries where Catholicism predominated, enslaved children were never protected from being sold apart from their parents, an ordeal that we will discuss in further detail in chapter 12.