Jumping the Broom: The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual

Abstract

In Jumping the Broom Tyler D. Parry sets out to provide the definitive history of a familiar matrimonial tradition. The book's impact, however, is considerably more profound: Parry demonstrates that there is not—nor can there be—a single definitive interpretation of this broadly multicultural, inevitably political, and deeply personal custom. While the book holds plenty of surprises, its title is somewhat misleading. Outside of an opening chapter on the earliest known examples of besom weddings, Parry writes less about “origins” than about the continual reimagining of the ritual over the past two centuries. He establishes that the tradition of newlyweds holding hands and jumping over a broom to seal the union was invented by marginalized people in the British Isles who found themselves excluded from church marriage, then most likely traveled to North America with Welsh immigrants, where it spread across time, distance, and cultures. Parry has uncovered evidence of broom...