Editing Reconstruction era (section)

===Legalization of slave marriages===
Before 1864, slave marriages had not been recognized legally; emancipation did not affect them.{{sfnp|Jones|2010|p=72}} When freed, many sought official marriages. Before emancipation, slaves could not enter into contracts, including the marriage contract. Not all free people formalized their unions. Some continued to have common-law marriages or community-recognized relationships.<ref name="The Making of the American South">{{cite book |last=Harris |first=J. William |url= |title=The Making of the American South: A Short History 1500–1877 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=9780631209638 |location=Malden, Massachusetts |page=240 |doi=10.1002/9780470773338}}</ref> The acknowledgement of marriage by the state increased the state's recognition of freed people as legal actors and eventually helped make the case for parental rights for freed people against the practice of apprenticeship of Black children.<ref name="Gendered Strife and Confusion p53">{{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Laura F. |title=Gendered Strife and Confusion: The Political Culture of Reconstruction |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-252-02297-5 |location=Chicago |page=53}}</ref> These children were legally taken away from their families under the guise of "providing them with guardianship and 'good' homes until they reached the age of consent at twenty-one" under acts such as the Georgia 1866 Apprentice Act.{{sfnp|Hunter|1997|p=34}} Such children were generally used as sources of unpaid labor.