Segment from Committed

Goin’ to the Chapel

Before there was Vegas, baby, there was Elkton, Maryland. BackStory contributors Nell Boeschenstein and Kelley Libby take a trip to this tiny town and tell the story of its former life as the elopement capital of the country.

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

Can This Marriage Be Saved?

Brian talks with Wendy Kline about the links between the rise of marriage counseling and the scientific embrace of eugenics.

00:07:31

Babies Having Babies

The Backstory hosts talk to Nicholas Syrett about the 1938 marriage of a 9-year-old Tennessee girl to a 22-year-old man – and the national uproar it prompted.

00:03:03

Listener Calls

The Backstory hosts take calls about marriage.

00:10:04

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

The Backstory hosts discuss just why people got married before they married for love.

00:02:14

In the Eyes of the Law

Ed chats with Liz Regosin about what marriage meant to freedpeople who had not been allowed to legally marry under slavery – and why freedpeople’s marriages were of such interest to Northern white reformers. Then Peter, Ed, and Brian riff on federal intervention in our intimate affairs.

00:06:04

Goin’ to the Chapel

Before there was Vegas, baby, there was Elkton, Maryland. BackStory contributors Nell Boeschenstein and Kelley Libby take a trip to this tiny town and tell the story of its former life as the elopement capital of the country.

00:04:57