The law of Virginia[142] provided that persons of color living as husband and wife on February 27, 1866, whether or not any ceremony had been performed, should be considered as lawfully married and their children legitimate. If they had separated prior to that date the children of the woman, if recognized by the man to be his, were nevertheless legitimate. West Virginia[143] had practically the same law, except the latter clause about recognition by the father. Illinois,[144] as late as 1891, passed a statute to legalize slave marriages and legitimate the children thereof. But this law did not apply to a voidable slave marriage in another State, disaffirmed by a subsequent legal marriage before the enactment of the statute.[145] A similar decision under a similar statute was rendered in Ohio[146] in 1883. These decisions would indicate that a slave marriage was valid only if there was no subsequent marriage of either party to a third person. In 1876, New York[147] recognized as valid slave marriages contracted in slave States with the consent of the master. MARRIAGES BETWEEN SLAVES AND FREE NEGROES Statutes relative to marriages between free Negroes and slaves are not numerous. Presumably, the term “persons of color” included both Negroes born free and those who had been slaves. A Tennessee court,[148] in 1882, held that the formal marriage of a free Negro and a slave, with the consent of the master, followed by a cohabitation for years, was a valid marriage and entitled the woman to dower. FEDERAL LEGISLATION The Congress of the United States has had occasion to pass upon the validity of slave marriages only in connection with pensions to the descendants of colored soldiers. An act[149] of 1873 provided that, in determining whether the widow of a Negro or Indian soldier and sailor is entitled to a pension, it is necessary only for the claimants to show that she was married according to some ceremony, which she and the deceased deemed obligatory, that they habitually recognized each other as husband and wife, and were so recognized by their neighbors, and that they lived together up to the date of his enlistment. It was also provided that the children of such marriages might claim their father’s pension. Though they proceeded in different ways, practically all of the States arrived at the same result. If slaves were married according to the custom, if they lived as husband and wife both before and after Emancipation, their union was considered a valid marriage to all intents and purposes and the children thereof might inherit. Where the procurement of a certificate or remarriage was required, if one of the parties took advantage of the opportunity to be freed from the early alliance, as happened in several amusing instances, and took another spouse, the second marriage was the valid one, and the children of the slave union could not inherit their parents’ property.