people still couldn't marry other black people. it is one of the most overlooked and cruellest parts of our sad history of slavery. marriages were not legally recognized if the people were slaves. since slaves were property, they could not be legally husband or wife nor mother and child. their marriage vows were different, not until death do you part but until death or distance do you part. marriages among slaves were not legally recognized. you know, just like marriages to day in california are not legally recognized if the people are gay. and uncountable in our history the men and women force the by society into marrying the opposite sex in sham marriages or marriages of convenience or marriages of not knowing, centuries of men and women who lived their lives in shame and unhappiness through a lie to themselves or others, broken other countless lives of spouses and children all because we said a man could not marry another man or a woman could not marry