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Mar. 8, 2006 Our Founding Fathers married without a marriage license. Abraham Lincoln didn't need a license for matrimony either. When the West was wild, Couples would cohabitant for months or even years without the benefit of a religious ceremony until a traveling clergyman came into the area. Ironically, it was only interracial couples that were required to have Marriage Licenses before that time when it finally became legal. In the 1600's, Early American History - The Virginia Plantation Owners needed slaves. Attempts to enslave the Indian frequently failed because the Indians knew the land and would take flight into the hills, return to their people and sometimes come back with warriors to retaliate. . The poor whites or indentured servants could easily escape and lose themselves among white people. Thus the African Blacks who didn't know the land or the language were taken away from their tribal support and brought involuntarily to the New World as slaves. At first the Black Slaves lived and worked along side the White indentured servants. They would fall in love, pair up, cohabitant together and produce bi-racial children.. This interracial blending threatened to blur the distinctions between white and black--and thus between free and slave. The Commonwealth of Virginia began categorizing the child as free or slave according to the mother's status. Interracial Marriages were outlawed to stop the interracial blending of children. In 1691 the Virginia assembly passed a law to make sure that women didn't bear mixed-race children. The law banned "negroes, mulatto's and Indians intermarrying with English, or other white women, [and] their unlawfully accompanying with one another" It didn't stop sex between the races. In fact, sex between male slave owners and their female slaves—voluntarily or otherwise --was common. There was no marriage therefore no equal status for the women. Thus the children that resulted were born in slavery. Until the 18 th century all Southern states--and many Northern ones--outlawed marriages between blacks and whites. Only two states which lead the way for the abolitionist movement. Pennsylvania in 1780 and Massachusetts in 1843- -begin allowing interracial marriages. . After the Civil War, some States begin followed suit. Mixed race couples could marry after receiving a license from that state. The Federal Government was appalled and in December of 1912, an amendment to the Constitution was introduced to abolish racial intermarriage: Intermarriage between negros or persons of color and Caucasians . . . within the United States . . . is forever prohibited. This amendment failed. Soon the State Governments saw an opportunity to regulate marriages for everyone and began requiring all people who marry to obtain a marriage license. (they later established the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act). By 1929, every state in the Union had adopted marriage license laws. HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF………. with the another attempt at a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage PROPOSED "FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT" (FMA) Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman." Wording of the Federal Marriage Amendment as of 2004-JUL-12 The Constitution should never be to classify a group of people as "less than" in order to deny them rights. It is too important of a document to become a political pawn for pushing the agenda for the radical religious right who would not have a leg to stand on without their religious arguments.. If two people of the same gender love each other and are committed to building a life together, should they not have the same protections and rights as heterosexual couples. Marriage is a sham for some heterosexuals. Consider some women who go on National Television with the goal of entering Marriage with some rich bachelor. Atheists, Heathens and even a Satanist can walk into the County Clerk's office, get a marriage license and be joined together in Holy Matrimony by a Judge. It is a Union that is recognized by the state. The Clergy have the option of deciding who or who doesn't get married in their churches. A Unitarian Universalist Minister will perform a religious ceremony for a same gender couple. Ministers with the mindset of Pat Robertson would not perform such a ceremony. The First Amendment and the Separation of Church and State prevails. When Thomas Jefferson was authoring the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, it ist likely that the matrimonial rights of interracial and same gender couples did not cross his mind. He would have had to make his slave Mistress Sally Hemming his First Lady. ------------ About the author: Bonijean Isaacs is a freelance writer and Astrologer in West Virginia. Email: inez4liberty@gmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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