contubernium

contubernium (kon-t[y]uu-b[schwa]r-nee-[schwa]m). [Latin] Roman law. A marriage-like union between slaves. • Contubernium was recognized in the United States. Before slavery was abolished, only one Southern court gave a marriage between slaves legal effect upon manumission. See Girod v. Lewis, 6 Mart. (O.S.) 559, 559–60 (La. 1819). In 1825, the Louisiana legislature passed a law expressly making such marriages invalid.

“No such thing as marriage among slaves was, or could be, recognized by the law. As slaves were wholly subject to the disposal of their masters, no unions having the character of permanence or sacredness could exist among them: such a union, if it existed, would abridge the master’s power of absolute control. Among slaves there could only be contubernium, cohabitation of the sexes for a longer or shorter time, but no legal matrimonium.” James Hadley, Introduction to Roman Law 111 (1881).

“There was … among slaves a permitted cohabitation called contubernium, but it brought with it no civil rights…. [C]ohabitation, … in a state of slavery, was not marriage, or evidence of marriage. It conferred no rights upon the offspring, and created no legal disabilities on the part of the father from forming a valid marriage, whenever he became in a condition which would authorize him to contract one.” Adrienne D. Davis, The Private Law of Race and Sex: An Antebellum Perspective, 51 Stan. L. Rev. 221, 245 (1999).


专业法律词汇 词条贡献者
资深译员Tommy,毕业于亚洲顶尖的高级翻译学院,擅长翻译有关基础设施/交通运输领域的法律文件。
Scroll to Top