---
title: "Jumping the Broom — AP African American Studies Definition"
description: "Jumping the broom was a marriage ritual created by enslaved African Americans whose unions had no legal standing, key to Topic 3.2 on family and freedom."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/jumping-the-broom"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 3"
---

# Jumping the Broom — AP African American Studies Definition

## Definition

Jumping the broom was a symbolic wedding ritual enslaved African Americans performed to solemnize their marriages, which had no legal recognition under slavery; in AP African American Studies it shows how enslaved people built family traditions despite a system designed to break family bonds.

## What It Is

Jumping the broom was a ceremony in which an [enslaved](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/5-slave-auctions-and-the-domestic-slave-trade/study-guide/emjWEVMx5ufYjuD1 "fv-autolink") couple literally jumped over a broomstick to mark their union as a marriage. Under [slavery](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/23-the-civil-war-and-black-communities/study-guide/izqwf48keJf083W0 "fv-autolink"), enslaved people could not enter legal contracts, and marriage is a legal contract. So the law treated their unions as nonexistent, and enslavers could (and did) sell husbands away from wives and children away from parents. Jumping the broom was the community's answer. It created a public, witnessed commitment that everyone in the enslaved community recognized, even though no courthouse would.

In the CED, this ritual sits inside [Topic 3.2](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/2-reuniting-black-families-and-the-freedmens-bureau/study-guide/aEAVbWLFZtuR367M "fv-autolink") as evidence for EK 3.2.B.1, which says that despite centuries of forced sales, relocations, and renaming, African Americans created new kinship bonds and family traditions during and after slavery. The ritual matters precisely because of what it lacked. It carried full meaning inside the community but zero legal protection outside it, which is why one of the Freedmen's Bureau's first jobs after 1865 was legalizing marriages that already existed in everything but paperwork.

## Why It Matters

This term lives in **[Unit 3](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3 "fv-autolink"): The Practice of Freedom**, Topic 3.2 (Social Life: Reuniting Black Families and the Freedmen's Bureau). It directly supports learning objective [AP African American Studies](/ap-african-american-studies "fv-autolink") 3.2.B, which asks you to explain how African Americans strengthened family bonds that enslavement had disrupted. Jumping the broom is your best single piece of evidence that those bonds existed *before* emancipation. Families were not created in 1865; they were finally *recognized* in 1865. That distinction also connects to AP African American Studies 3.2.A, because legalizing marriages was one of the Freedmen's Bureau's core functions (EK 3.2.A.2). When formerly enslaved couples rushed to register marriages with the Bureau, they were converting broomstick weddings into legal ones. If you can narrate that arc, ritual under slavery to legal recognition after it, you understand the heart of Topic 3.2.

## Connections

### Freedmen's Bureau marriage legalization (Unit 3)

The Bureau, established by Congress in 1865, legalized marriages as one of its main forms of assistance to formerly enslaved people. Jumping the broom is the before, and Bureau marriage registration is the after. Couples were not starting new relationships; they were getting the law to finally acknowledge old ones.

### Family separation and the domestic slave trade (Units 2-3)

Jumping the broom only makes sense against the threat it answered. Because enslavers could sell spouses and children at will, an enslaved marriage had no legal shield. The ritual was an act of commitment made in defiance of a trade that treated family members as movable property.

### Emancipation and post-Civil War family searches (Unit 3)

After [abolition](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/13-resistance-and-revolts-in-the-united-states/study-guide/Eb17rb9yzYu279TU "fv-autolink"), African Americans used newspapers, word of mouth, and the Freedmen's Bureau to find kin scattered by sale (EK 3.2.B.2). The marriages they were trying to restore were often broomstick marriages, which shows those unions were real and binding to the people in them long before any court agreed.

### Kinship traditions as cultural resilience (Unit 3)

EK 3.2.B.1 frames new kinship bonds and family traditions as a response to forced sales and renaming. Jumping the broom is the classic example of that pattern, a community inventing its own institution when American law refused to provide one.

## On the AP Exam

Expect jumping the broom in multiple-choice stems that ask about its *significance*, not just its definition. A typical question asks why enslaved people performed the ritual, and the credited answer points to the absence of legal marriage rights under slavery. Related questions test the flip side, asking which condition prevented legally recognized marriages (enslavement) or what became newly possible for Black families after abolition (legal marriage, reuniting with kin). No released FRQ has used the term verbatim, but it is strong specific evidence for any short-answer or essay prompt about how African Americans maintained family and cultural bonds under slavery or how emancipation changed family life. The move that earns points is pairing it with the Freedmen's Bureau, showing continuity from informal ritual to legal recognition.

## jumping the broom vs Freedmen's Bureau marriage legalization

These are two stages of the same story, and the exam tests whether you keep them straight. Jumping the broom happened *during* slavery and was symbolic, binding within the community but invisible to the law. Bureau marriage legalization happened *after* 1865 and was legal, giving existing unions official standing and the protections that came with it. If a question is about ritual and community recognition, that's jumping the broom. If it's about citizenship, records, and legal rights after the Civil War, that's the Bureau.

## Key Takeaways

- Jumping the broom was a symbolic wedding ritual enslaved African Americans used because slavery denied them legally recognized marriages.
- The ritual is evidence for EK 3.2.B.1, showing that African Americans created kinship bonds and family traditions despite forced sales, relocations, and renaming.
- After 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau legalized many of these existing marriages, turning community-recognized unions into legally protected ones.
- On the exam, the significance of jumping the broom is what gets tested, so always tie the ritual to the legal exclusion it worked around.
- The broomstick-wedding-to-legal-marriage arc is a ready-made continuity-and-change argument for Unit 3 prompts about family life after emancipation.

## FAQs

### What was jumping the broom and why did enslaved people do it?

Jumping the broom was a ceremony where an enslaved couple jumped over a broomstick to mark their marriage. They did it because slavery barred them from legal marriage, so the ritual gave their union public, community recognition that the law refused to provide.

### Were enslaved people's marriages legal in the United States?

No. [Enslaved people](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-1/5-the-sudanic-empires-ghana-mali-and-songhai/study-guide/9Z0Xy4gouUYuqDCS "fv-autolink") could not enter legal contracts, so their marriages had no legal standing, and enslavers could sell spouses apart at any time. That legal void is exactly why jumping the broom existed.

### How is jumping the broom different from the Freedmen's Bureau legalizing marriages?

Jumping the broom was a symbolic ritual performed during slavery with no legal force, while the Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872) registered and legalized marriages after [emancipation](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/emancipation "fv-autolink"). Many couples who had jumped the broom went to the Bureau to make their existing marriage official.

### Did emancipation create Black families for the first time?

No, and this is a common trap. Families, marriages, and kinship networks already existed under slavery through traditions like jumping the broom. Emancipation let those families gain legal recognition and search for kin separated by the domestic slave trade.

### Is jumping the broom on the AP African American Studies exam?

Yes, it falls under Topic 3.2 in Unit 3 and supports learning objective AP African American Studies 3.2.B. Multiple-choice questions typically ask about its significance for enslaved African Americans and how family life changed after abolition.

## Related Study Guides

- [3.2 Social Life: Reuniting Black Families and the Freedmen's Bureau](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/2-reuniting-black-families-and-the-freedmens-bureau/study-guide/aEAVbWLFZtuR367M)

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