Many have seen or heard of the Black tradition of jumping the broom to get married - and one of its roots in slavery. But another analysis of the enslavement-era broomstick makes a point about a different kind of love.
Though many enslaved people cleaned the domestic spaces of enslavers, the time and tools chosen to attend to personal quarters differed. They fashioned brooms from sage, grass and loose straw, sweeping their cabins’ dirt floors and front yards.
Despite no legal property ownership, this was as close to a home as they had. Handmaking brooms and keeping their quarters clean was a way to assert control over their space and commit to their households - even amidst violence and chaos.
Brooms were innocent enough to symbolize love, home, and agency. Compared to more blatant symbols of resistance, like books, enslavers didn’t see them as a threat.
And when it came to independent marriages, jumping the broom therefore represented crossing into a shared domestic space, with hopes to embody all that the seemingly ordinary cleaning tool symbolized.
Today, while many don’t engage in this wedding tradition or personally value brooms the same, Black people across the diaspora have found additional objects and practices to fulfill a similar purpose.
From family scrapbooks and quilts to sacred furniture and gardens, what represents home to you?