Report from army chaplain A.B. Randall, attached to a regiment of Black soldiers in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1865
Denied legal marriage under slavery, many freedpeople quickly sought to legalize longstanding relationships. Clergymen—particularly the Union army chaplains present throughout much of the South—found themselves in great demand. A.B. Randall was an army chaplain with a Black regiment in Arkansas.
Little Rock Ark Feb 28th 1865
Weddings, just now, are very popular, and abundant among the Colored People. They have just learned of the Special Order No. 15 of Gen. Thomas by which, they may not only be lawfully married, but have their Marriage Certificates Recorded; in a book furnished by the Government. This is most desirable; and the order, was very opportune as these people were constantly losing their certificates. Those who were captured from the “Chepewa” at Ivy’s Ford on the 17th of January, by Col. Brooks, had their Marriage Certificates taken from them and destroyed; and then were roundly cursed for having such papers in their possession. I have married, during the month at this Post, Twenty five couples, mostly those who have families and have been living together for years. I try to dissuade single men who are soldiers from marrying until their time of enlistment is out, as that course seems to me to be most judicious.
The Colored People here, generally consider, this war not only; their exodus from bondage, but the road to Responsibility; Competency; and honorable Citizenship—God grant that their hopes and expectations may be fully realized. Most Respectfully
A.B. Randall
Source: Reprinted in Berlin, Ira and Leslie S. Rowland, eds. Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of African American Kinship in the Civil War Era. New York: New Press, 1997. 163. (Document 4.12.1)