The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-10
AT WAR OVER A BED.
A Case That is Likely to Bring Up
Some Old Marriage Customs.

some Ola Marriage customs
DOrcas Shine (colored) was bound over to
answer in the city court by Justice Endres
yesterday after q preliminary examination,
on a charge of malicious mischief entered
/ against her by her stepmother, Rose Camp
| bell, Dorcas having demolished bedstead,
| cl lined by each one of the women, with
I an ak.
Tue parties, all of whom live on Hutch
| inson'S island, we're represented by counsel,
| Isaac Beckett, Esq, representing the prose-
! cutting witness and T. d. Rockwell, Esq,
| conducting the defendants side If the case.
The case was one Of peculiar interest, as
| the incidents which cropped out in the trial
revived the marriage customs during the
| days Of slavery. Paul Campbsll, the cause
/ of the trouble, has rounded up the full
measure Of his years, and as Rose Campbell
/ said on the witness stand, II sleep vita
| him on dat bed, an him die on
dat bed, an | buries him off of dat
| bed and den halt no moab use foa him,
an tote it out in de shed Him was my
| lawfully husban'. an | done marry him IN
November, 1888"
Juna Ann Campbell, Campbell's wife in
slave times was also in court and witness
for her daughter. 1t appears that DOrcas
wanted her fathers bed, and thought she
was the rghtful inheritor Of his goods and
chatteis. She carried off double-barrel
shotgun, which is now in the Justices court
pending the settlement Of property rights
which are likely to come up for a1judica-
ton in a higher court. Dorcas says
that previous to her attempting the
possession of the piece of furniture her
stepmother had told her that she might have
it, as she had no use for it. Ro5e denied
this on the witness stand. When Dorcas
found the old bedstead in the she'd and
essayed to carry it of, Rose jerkei it away
from her and threw it down, accidentally
breaking the headboard of the heirloom,
wnereupol the daughter of slave mar
riage, fired with indignation, and sharing
the sentiment of the poet,
Woe to him whose daring hand profanes
The honored her.ooms OF his ancestors,
Seized an ak and demolished the badstead.
As both parties have means to contest the
case and employ counsel. the end is not yet
A nice point of law is likely to be brought
out in the after litigation Campbell and
his wife of slave times came from South
Carolina, where 1t is claimed the
state recognized the marital re-
lations to be valid and binding
in such cases without the solemnity of
church or state ceremony, and under the
laws of Georgia all colored people living as
man and wife on March O. 1866, we're held
to be such, but after that time a Ii ense and
marriage ceremony were made prerequisites
for legal marriage If Campbell and his
wife of slave times were held to be legally
married in South Carolina, and they were
not residents OF Georgia March Q, 1856, will
the courts of Georgia hold that the second
marriage was illegal and void9 And if so,
something more than the value of Paul
CampbelFs bedstead and shotgun may de-
pend on it, as there are a number OF lust
such cases in Georgia where considerable
property would be at issue, as many colored
men after the war took unto themselves
new wives, and went through the lawful
forms in forsaking the old love for the new.