Rural Anglo-Saxons embraced the practice as well. Pre-Christian Roma and Celtic communities in the British Isles were known for jumping the broom to seal their wedding vows. Likely, the tradition of jumping the broom traveled from Britain to the colonies. However, a 2020 study of 378 testimonies about enslaved weddings revealed that only 28 percent made references to broomstick rituals, while 34 percent described no ceremony at all, and 38 percent mentioned other ceremonial rites entirely. Like Roots shows, some enslaved couples, when permitted to marry, did jump the broom with pledges of everlasting love. In recent years, I found scholarly evidence confirming my long-held hypothesis of the broomstick wedding’s origins. Felicitously, the broom was in her mother’s possession at the time, and I was able to examine the sacred heirloom-carefully hand-crafted and preserved for over six generations. A blue ribbon was tied around the broom with each couple’s names inscribed. The family's broom had been passed along from one couple to another across generations. Immediately, a Jewish student of Polish heritage said her family had a long history of jumping the broom. I confessed that I actually believed the custom originated in Europe. During a class lecture, my students and I discussed an assigned reading that addressed the tradition. My suspicion of the custom’s European origins grew when I taught at Macalester College in St. While studying abroad in Nigeria, I researched the association-but wherever I looked, I found no links between broomstick weddings and Africa.
As an undergraduate, I frequently came across references that associated broomstick weddings with Black Americans' African heritage. As a professor of religion and African American studies at Emory University, I’ve spent my career researching the custom’s transatlantic journey and how it changed over generations. While jumping the broom indeed predates African enslavement in America, it’s actually been traced to indigenous wedding rituals in Europe. In the years since Roots premiered, I’ve been invited to a number of weddings in which Black couples jumped the broom, considering it a dignifying African tradition preserved by ancestors.īut the tradition’s true origin story complicates its legacy. The broomstick wedding, for many viewers, conveyed how African descendants shared the profound joy of romantic love in the midst of incessant violation and trauma. I never forgot this scene, and I wasn’t alone: It left an indelible impression on Black America. After both respond affirmatively, she invites the bride and groom to “jump over the broom into the land of matrimony.”
She then places the broom on the earthen floor in front of the couple and asks if they are confident about their decision to marry. Gripping the broomstick tightly, she shifts the broom up and down as she marches around the couple, soliciting prayers for preservation of their marriage. An elderly woman parades around the couple with a specially prepared broom, adorned with red and gold ribbons. Kunta Kinte and Belle, both enslaved, cement their wedding vows by jumping the broom. In Roots's third episode comes a rare moment of tenderness.
JUMPING OVER A BROOMSTICK WAS A CEREMONY CELEBRATING SERIES
The series chronicled the life of Kunta Kinte through his capture from Africa and enslavement in the 18th and 19th century American South. Viewed by an estimated 85 percent of American households, Roots is considered one of the most impactful shows of all time. I was in elementary school when the Emmy award-winning miniseries, Roots, aired in 1977.
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