Alabama Cohabitation Records

Alabama State Law
Section 1: Be it ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in convention assembled, That all marriages between freedmen and freedwomen, whether in a state of slavery or since their emapcipation, heretofore solemnized by any one acting or officiating as a minister, or any one claiming to exercise the right to solemnize the rites of matrimony, whether bond or free, are hereby ratified and made valid, provided the parties are now living togher as man and wife; and in all cases of freedmen and freedwomen who are now living together recognizing each other as man and wife, be it ordained that the same are hereby declared to be man and wife, and bound by the legal obligation of such relationship.

 Rural Records of Mid-Southern United States