1865 Baltimore marriage license for African American couple, filled in by African Methodist Episcopal elder

Partially printed 10" x 8" marriage license issued by Baltimore and completed in manuscript on the reverse for George Washington Miller and Sarah Elizabeth Hammond, both noted as "Col'd", by Savage L. Hammond, the father of the bride and a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Dated October 7, 1865, the license represents an exceptionally state-sanctioned legal recognition of African American marriage. The front was completed by a clerk for the Baltimore courts, James Lowry, and the reverse is filled in by African American minister, Savage L. Hammond. Hammond appears to have been born free, and was taught to read and write as an adult and soon thereafter attended night schools, studying theology, philosophy, and classical languages. He went on to become an Elder and minister in the AME Church, though there is little other extant information of his life outside of his brief biography in Benjamin Tucker Tanner's 1867 Apology for African Methodism, pp. 215-218.