In the beginning little social distinction was made in America on the base of race. However, as the racial justification for slavery developed, there began to creep into the mores a distinction between blacks and whites. One of its first manifestations was the passage of laws against intermarriage. When black servants were reduced to slavery, the colonial governing classes redoubled their efforts to stamp out racial mixing. Miscegenation in this era was not only a serious breach of Puritan morality, but also a serious threat to slavery and the stability of the servile labor force.
The earliest record available against the cohabitation of black-white servants was the case of Hugh Davis, a white servant in Virginia who was sentenced to a public beating on Sept. 17, 1630, before an assembly of negroes and others for defiling himself with a Negro. It was required that he confess as much the following Sabbath.
The first law to deter racial intermarriage was enacted in the early colonial period. The General Assembly of the Colony of Maryland in 1661 deplored the fact that there were many cases of intermarriage between white female servants and negro slaves. It legislated that if any free born white woman intermarried with a negro slave, she would have to serve her husband’s master as long as the slave lived.
In 1681, a new Maryland law decreed that any freeborn white woman who married a Negro slave with the permission of the slave’s master could retain her freedom. However, the master or mistress of the intermarried slave and the clergyman performing the ceremony were to be penalized by a fine. This law was an attempt to deter racial intermarriage by shifting the penalty to those allegedly responsible for the action of slaves.
Some other colonies also legislated against black-white marriages. N.C. in 1715 set up a heavy fine and a period of servitude for any white woman who married a Negro. It also provided a 50 pound fine to the clergyman who officiated. Mass. In 1705, and PA in 1725 also passed similar legislation.
In the legislatures if several of the states which had no prohibitive laws to prevent black-white marriages, bills to prevent such, were introduced several times in states such as WI, MASS, CONN, WA, KS, MN, IA, IL, MI, OH, PA, NY. Congress also considered bills to prevent this in D.C. The states which had laws against black white marriages followed a similar pattern, mostly southern and western states, while northern ones had no laws. After the U.S. became a nation, eventually 33 states prohibited one or more forms of interracial marriage.
After the adoption of the 14th amendment to the constitution, July 28, 1868, the question immediately arose whether or not state laws prohibiting intermarriage denied colored people the equality guaranteed to them by the amendment. Most cases were decided in State courts and the laws were upheld.
Despite the arguments, pro or con, there still exists in the U.S. a conflict in norms regarding the right of an individual to select his own marriage partner irrespective of race. A large proportion of American society is intolerant of interracial marriage. In almost every other large and racially mixed society in the modern world such marriages are accepted, both legally and socially. No other nation has ever been as determinedly race conscious as the U.S. other than South Africa.
Changes in Antimiscegenation Laws
There has been a rise in mixed marriages as many antimiscegenation or intermarriage laws in the U.S. have changed. As of 1967 16 states still had laws against it, mostly southern and western, and as recently as this year Alabama still had a law against it, but that law is no longer in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1924 Virginia law forbidding interracial marriages as unconstitutional in 1967 saying it denied all persons their 14th amendment.
The case involved two native born Virginians, Richard Loving, white, and Mildred, his wife who was black. In June 1958 they married in D.C. but shortly after their marriage they returned to Virginia and established themselves in Caroline County. In the October term, 1958, of the Circuit Court of Caroline Co. A grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages. On Jan. 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to 1 year in jail, or for a period of 25 years the lovings had to leave the state and not return together.
After moving to D.C. the Lovings took their case to state court in Virginia, but failed. The Punishment for Intermarriage reads as follows, If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than 1 year nor more than 5. They eventually took it to the Supreme Court and you already know how that went.
However, despite the lack of legal support for bans on interracial marriage, the customs and norms of the white majority, and to some extent the black minority, make interracial marriage a rare and deviant sort of behavior.
Reasons for Interracial Marriages
Several theories have been proposed as to why people may marry interracially. One theory is the sex. We all know the myth about black men, another not so well known myth is that black women are sex freaks in bed. Another theory is that people do it to prove to society that they will defy prejudice. Yet another theory is that a person hasn’t been thoroughly integrated into their social group, so that person seeks elsewhere. The 4th theory is that people do it to rebel against their parents. However, most interracial marriages are just like any other marriage in that they marry for the same reason same race couples do.
In fact interracial marriages tend to last longer than same race ones because people going into interracial marriages are prepared for a rocky road and are prepared to stick with it, while same race couples may have not experienced that same adversity, and at the first sign of struggle, back out of the marriage.
Family
White women that marry interracially, especially with a black man have a higher risk of being alienated by their family. This is due to the bad reputation the black men have that society created for them. Most black men had a hard time getting their families to accept their white spouse.
White men who marry interracially, tend to have a very high acceptance rate among family members, while black women who marry interracially don’t have quite as high an acceptance rate.
Society
In general society tends to view black women-white men marriages as less repulsive than white women-black men marriages, and as a result both relationships are met with different attitudes.
Also white men-black women marriages tend to live in a white or a racially mixed area, while black men-white women marriages tend to live in black neighborhoods.
No matter where you go however there will always be negative reactions, which include staring, rude comments, neighbors that ignore you, isolation, and occasionally violence. Stares mostly occur in public rather than in a neighborhood.
In the church, most churches tend to be accepting of any type of marriage, except homosexual marriages, and tend to welcome people in interracial marriages with open arms.
Occasionally in hospitals people will make innocent comments asking if that dark skinned or light skinned baby is adopted, not even thinking that it could be a product of an interracial marriage, however occasionally there is a nurse who will voice their opinion on these types of marriages.
As usual the police get a bad rap. In general they will harass people in interracial marriages and can be very humiliating. There is really nothing you can do about it though.
As for housing, it can be harder to find an apartment if the landlord has a bias against interracial marriages, however, it is a problem that will occasionally happen. It won’t be impossible to find housing but it may be more difficult. It really depends on the neighborhood too.
As for employment, certain types of harassment can occur when employees find out about your spouse of a different color. It can even include job dismissal, but if a job was to dismiss you for who you married, then it probably wasn’t worth working there anyway.
Relations with the black community tend to be easier with a black woman-white man relationship, they are received, in general, with open arms, while there is hostility, especially with black women, with respect to black men-white women unions.
Black men-white women unions are also generally less well received in the white community while like in the black community black women-white men unions are generally well received.
The Future for Interracial Marriages
These days there is such a focus on skin color that it is hard to be in an interracial relationship. However even so, interracial relationships are becoming more and more common. The only sure fire way to kill the stereotypes is for more race mixing to occur. When everyone is everything there is no way to single someone out because of their color. While this scenario is ideal we are a long way away from having that occur. It took us 4 million or so odd years to finally get to a point where races can mix, it’s only occurred really for about 350 years. However being the melting pot that we are, we are in great shape for something like this to occur here. With a nation that is arguably the most color conscious country on the planet, this will be hard to achieve, but all the tools are in place to make this country the Interracial States of America.