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or their owners being willing for them to live together and cohabit as man and wife, they dare not do it  

I have a case in point.
John Fletcher and Martha Fletcher, were owned as slaves by consent of owners they lived together as man and wife, for several years had children, the war came on he enlisted in Company B 12 U.S.C.I. served his time out, and contracted a diseased came home sick to the woman Martha Fletcher and claimed her as his wife she nursed him until he died.

She filed a claim for his bounty and it has been rejected by the department for the reason that there was not a ceremony said at their marriage other than that of owners consent which we all know was the only ceremony that they could consider or was binding.

There are a great many similar cases.