# Jumping the broom
**Jumping the broom** is a wedding ritual in which a couple joins hands and leaps over a broom, most familiar today as a tradition of Black and African American weddings performed after the vows to mark the start of married life.[1](https://www.zola.com/expert-advice/what-is-jumping-the-broom) Its history is transatlantic and multicultural: the broomstick wedding is documented among marginalized communities in the [British Isles](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-isles) from the eighteenth century, and it became a common marriage ceremony among enslaved people in the United States, who were legally barred from marrying.[2](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469660882_parry) • [3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs102)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| The act | After the couple's vows, they join hands and jump over a broom together, symbolizing entry into their new life as a married couple[1](https://www.zola.com/expert-advice/what-is-jumping-the-broom) |
| Function under slavery | Enslaved people could not marry in churches or courthouses; jumping the broom served as a nontraditional wedding ceremony and functioned as a wedding license among free individuals in the South[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs102) |
| Documented origins | Scholarship places the broomstick wedding in western Europe, primarily the British Isles, with the earliest firm grounding in isolated Welsh communities and among British Romani[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) • [5](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/128/1/509/7098159) |
| Decline and revival | The custom largely fell out of favor for about a century after the Civil War, then revived after Alex Haley's *Roots* (1976) and the 1977 miniseries, and spread further through Harriette Cole's 1993 wedding planner[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) • [6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471) |
| Historical evidence | The Works Progress Administration interviews with formerly enslaved people contain well over one hundred references to the broomstick wedding[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) |
| Key scholarship | Tyler D. Parry's *Jumping the Broom: The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual* (University of North Carolina Press, 2020) won the American Folklore Society's Wayland D. Hand Prize in 2022[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) |
## The ritual and its meaning
In the modern ceremony, the broom is typically placed on the ground near the end of the wedding, often after an officiant offers a prayer, poem, or brief explanation of the tradition's meaning, and the newlyweds jump over it together.[1](https://www.zola.com/expert-advice/what-is-jumping-the-broom) The jump represents stepping into the couple's new life as a married pair, and families and communities often witness it, giving the ritual shared significance.[1](https://www.zola.com/expert-advice/what-is-jumping-the-broom) • [7](https://dornsife.usc.edu/scribe/2025/11/29/the-journey-of-jumping-the-broom-in-black-american-weddings/) Decorated brooms are sometimes used in place of an ordinary household broom.[8](https://folklore.usc.edu/tradition-african-american/)
Historical performances varied considerably. In one Welsh custom recorded by the folklorist W. Rhys Jones in 1928, a birch besom was laid in the doorway of the couple's cabin; the groom jumped over it into the house first, then the woman, and if either touched the broom the marriage was considered invalid, while jumping backward over the besom broke the marriage.[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471) Among British Romani, the besom was held by the father of the bride or groom, the couple jumped in turn, and an official declared them married.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) In the American South, some Georgia plantations jumped over the broomstick backward instead of forward, and one formerly enslaved Tennessean recalled a ceremony in which the couple each carried a broom, faced one another, stepped across the brooms at the same time, and took hands, which married them.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/)
## Origins
The custom's origins have been debated between those arguing for West African roots and those pointing to Europe. Recent scholarship persuasively places the broomstick wedding in western Europe, primarily the British Isles.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) Tyler D. Parry, associate professor and director of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Program at the [University of Nevada, Las Vegas](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-nevada-las-vegas), identifies the earliest documented instances and finds the custom most firmly grounded in isolated pockets of Wales, though colloquial phrases like "jumping the broomstick" in Britain generally referred to weddings that lacked church approval.[5](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/128/1/509/7098159) The folklorist Alan Dundes, writing in the *Journal of American Folklore* in 1996, found no evidence that broom jumping traces to Africa but traced it to the Gypsies of England and Scotland.[8](https://folklore.usc.edu/tradition-african-american/) Parry suggests Welsh immigrants, primarily though not exclusively, brought the custom to North America.[5](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/128/1/509/7098159)
According to some widely circulated explanations, the ritual traces back to West African customs where brooms played a role in marriage ceremonies, either to shield newlyweds from harmful forces or to mark the founding of a new home.[7](https://dornsife.usc.edu/scribe/2025/11/29/the-journey-of-jumping-the-broom-in-black-american-weddings/) Parry's analysis of the historical record finds that no broomstick rituals in western Africa resemble the slave wedding, and he concludes the clearest link lies in the British Isles among communities of Celtic and Gypsy descent as well as rural [Anglo-Saxons](https://www.edgepedia.org/anglo-saxons).[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471)
## Use under slavery
Because enslaved people were property and could not contract legally sanctioned marriages, couples created their own ceremonies to express commitment publicly, and jumping the broom became one of the most common of these rituals.[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs102) • [7](https://dornsife.usc.edu/scribe/2025/11/29/the-journey-of-jumping-the-broom-in-black-american-weddings/) The broomstick was usually readily available when a master provided no endorsement or a preacher was unavailable.[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471)
The WPA narratives, thousands of interviews with [African Americans](https://www.edgepedia.org/african-americans) born before slavery's end in 1865, reference broomstick marriages with some frequency, and the custom was not performed one single way.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) Slave owners were present at the ceremony in about forty percent of the WPA accounts; in some cases masters held the broom or directed the couple, while in others slaves initiated the ritual independently of the master.[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471) Recent scholarship contends that only a minority of ex-slaves who remembered the ritual recalled any coercive language used during the ceremony.[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471) Not every formerly enslaved person remembered it fondly: some WPA respondents denied the practice, saying their families "really got married and didn't jump no broomstick," and for many, marrying "regular" meant eliminating all vestiges of slavery from their lives.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/)
The custom was not confined to enslaved African Americans. Broomstick weddings are documented among Louisiana Cajuns, poor white people in [Appalachia](https://www.edgepedia.org/appalachia), and other rural communities who lacked access to ministers, and the phrase "jump the broom" became a colloquial expression for getting married among white Americans as well.[9](https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/108/4/807/6564968) • [6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471)
## Decline and revival
After the Civil War, the [Freedmen's Bureau](https://www.edgepedia.org/freedmens-bureau), created by Congress in May 1865, ensured that freed people could obtain legally recognized unions, and many African Americans exercised their freedom by heading to the courthouse or chapel for a marriage license.[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471) Folk rituals like jumping the broomstick fell out of favor with newly freed African Americans seeking legal, Christian matrimony, and the custom largely receded for over one hundred years, though the phrase survived in Black southern speech into the twentieth century.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) • [10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357999111_Don%27t_Tell_Things_Like_That_Matrimonial_Change_and_Continuity_after_the_Civil_WarMatrimonial_Change_and_Continuity_after_the_Civil_War)
The revival came through popular culture. [Alex Haley](https://www.edgepedia.org/alex-haley)'s 1976 novel *[Roots: The Saga of an American Family](https://www.edgepedia.org/roots-the-saga-of-an-american-family)* and the 1977 miniseries depicted [Kunta Kinte](https://www.edgepedia.org/kunta-kinte) and Bell jumping the broom in a slave-quarters wedding, a scene that became a watershed moment in formulating the contemporary Black wedding.[6](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471) • [4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) Black-owned publications such as *Ebony* and *Jet* helped revive the phrase "jump the broom" in the 1980s and 1990s, and in late 1992 the Black press reported that Harriette Cole, then a fashion editor at *Essence* magazine, had published *Jumping the Broom: The African American Wedding Planner*, an immediate success that reviewers called the first how-to wedding planner of its kind for African Americans.[11](https://www.aaihs.org/black-americans-and-wedding-rituals-an-interview-with-tyler-d-parry/) • [2](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469660882_parry) Couples who adopted these Afrocentric elements within conventional Christian ceremonies came to call them "heritage weddings."[11](https://www.aaihs.org/black-americans-and-wedding-rituals-an-interview-with-tyler-d-parry/)
## Ownership and appropriation
Because the custom holds deep history in so many cultures, its modern use raises contested questions about who may claim it. With more white people now performing the broom-jumping ritual openly, claims that the practice is being culturally appropriated have become widespread; those white participants usually point to its European roots, whereas others regard it as belonging specifically to African American tradition.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/) The debate reached a wide audience around the 2018 royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and Parry's conclusion argues the discourse revealed continued misunderstanding of the ceremony's transatlantic, multicultural roots.[12](https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469660868.003.0011) Parry suggests that rather than one group holding a monopoly, jumping the broom exemplifies how peoples from Europe and Africa both contributed to cultural developments in the Americas, created by oppressed and ostracized groups on both sides of the Atlantic.[4](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/)
## References
1. [What Is Jumping The Broom? History & Meaning, Zola Expert Wedding Advice](https://www.zola.com/expert-advice/what-is-jumping-the-broom)
2. [Jumping the Broom: The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual, Tyler D. Parry, UNC Press (JSTOR record)](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469660882_parry)
3. [Jumping the Broom, Stephen R. Christ, Encyclopedia of Family Studies, Wiley (2016)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs102)
4. [Jumping the Broom and the American Cultural Divide, Tyler Parry, AAIHS (2018)](https://www.aaihs.org/jumping-the-broom-and-the-american-cultural-divide/)
5. [Review of Tyler D. Parry, Jumping the Broom, The American Historical Review 128(1), 2023](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/128/1/509/7098159)
6. [The Holy Land of Matrimony: The Complex Legacy of the Broomstick Wedding in American History, Tyler D. Parry, American Studies 55:1 (2016)](https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/4998/5992/12471)
7. [The Journey of Jumping the Broom in Black American Weddings, USC Dornsife Scribe (2025)](https://dornsife.usc.edu/scribe/2025/11/29/the-journey-of-jumping-the-broom-in-black-american-weddings/)
8. [Tradition – African-American, USC Digital Folklore Archives](https://folklore.usc.edu/tradition-african-american/)
9. [Review of Tyler D. Parry, Jumping the Broom, Journal of American History 108(4), 2022](https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/108/4/807/6564968)
10. [Don't Tell Things Like That: Matrimonial Change and Continuity after the Civil War (book chapter, Jumping the Broom)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357999111_Don%27t_Tell_Things_Like_That_Matrimonial_Change_and_Continuity_after_the_Civil_WarMatrimonial_Change_and_Continuity_after_the_Civil_War)
11. [Black Americans and Wedding Rituals: An Interview with Tyler D. Parry, AAIHS (2022)](https://www.aaihs.org/black-americans-and-wedding-rituals-an-interview-with-tyler-d-parry/)
12. [Whose Heritage? Whose Culture? The Uncertain Future of Jumping the Broom (conclusion), North Carolina Scholarship Online](https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469660868.003.0011)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Food, customs, and everyday culture › Clothing, textiles, and domestic crafts › Dress and clothing of the world › National, regional, and ethnic dress › Arctic, American, and African traditional dress › Traditional dress of the Americas and Africa — heritage, display, and contemporary revival*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license