Renfrow v. Renfrow

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Dostek, O. J. :

Grant and Ann Renfrow were colored persons living in the state of Missouri. They married each other in 1852 according to the ordinary form of marriage agreement and ceremony. This marriage did not confer upon them any legalized matrimonial status or relation. It was not deemed illegal or immoral by the law then obtaining, but it did not constitute them husband and wife. “It was an inflexible rule of the law of African slavery whérever *278it existed that the slave was incapable of entering into any contract, not excepting the contract of…