Marriage Laws
Soon after the Expulsion Laws were successfully implemented, laws regarding black marriages and childbearing were implemented to prevent more of them from opting for freedom. Once a slave was married and able to purchase their freedom, they had to be separated from their partner who was still enslaved or be reduced to slavery again. Several freed blacks opted to remain in or return to slavery to prevent being separated from their partners. In the book Bound in Wedlock, the story of Percy Ann Martin is told of how she petitioned the court to reduce her to slavery to stay with her husband.
