WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? INTEREST-CONVERGENCE AS A LENS TO VIEW STATE RATIFICATION OF POST EMANCIPATION SLAVE MARRIAGES

This Article examines whether interest-convergence and/or critical legal theory more thoroughly explains post-emancipation state ratification of former Slave marriages. Section I discusses interest-convergence theory and critical legal theory. Section II discusses the disruption of the Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction to the American South and its attempts to reestablish normalcy. Section III examines the contours of Pre-Civil War Marriage.

Section IV discusses the competing interests of the Freedmen and whites, and the convergence of those interests resulting in post-emancipation state ratification of former Slave marriages.