Freedmen's Labor Contracts, Madison County, Tennessee 1866-1867

FREEDMEN'S LABOR CONTRACTS
MADISON COUNTY, TENNESSEE 1866-1867
By Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1996

(Page 58)

APPENDIX TWO
INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE

Tennessee State Library and Archives: Legislative Petition 8-1832-1

To the Honorable, the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee now in session, the undersigned beg leave to state that your petitioner Richard Matthews a free man of color of Madison County, Tennessee and Margaret Oaney a white woman of said county and state, for marital benefit wish to marry as man and wife, and as this is repugnant to the law of the state, they humbly pray you will grant them a special act for that purpose and they will ever pray &c. said Matthews declares himself to be of the Portugues blood.
Sept.12, 1832 WITNESS S. T. SANDERS		/Signed with xs/ RICHARD MATTHEWS MARGARET OANEY
We the undersigned petitioners join in the above petition.
JOHN JOHNSON HARVEY M.D.CURRY JAMES /illegible/ SIMEON SULLIVAN DAVID JARRETT D. H. E. SANDERS A. L. H_______ JOHN A. McKENDREE	ESAU WRIGHT JAMES M. JOHNSON JOHN T. BRYAN RICHD. BRODNAX M. J. CASH S. T. SANDERS J. W. FORD		ALFRED NEAL JOHN C. LOVE JAMES HARRIS MALACHI HOLLAMON S. W. VAUGHAN THOS .H. BRADLEY MATTHEW CLANTON

This petition was denied in committee.

The 1830 U.S. Census for Madison County reveals-the following:

page 89: RICHARD MATTHEWS, free man of color. In his household two slave girls under age 10; one free man of color, aged 36-55; one ditto female aged under 10; one ditto female aged 24-36, one ditto female aged 55-100.

page 90: OSEKIAN OANEY. White household. One male aged 15-20; one male aged 40-50; one female aged 10-15; one female aged 40-50.

(Page 59)

STATUTE LAW OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, by John Haywood and Robert L. Cobb, volume one (Nashville, 1831), pages 219-220:

If any white man or woman shall intermarry with a negro, mustee /mestizoes/ or mulatto man or woman, or any person of mixed blood, bond or free, to the third generation inclusive, each and every person or persons so offending shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars . . . in any of the courts of this state. . . . (Based upon an act of the Tennessee Legislature, 1822)

THE CODE OF TENNESSEE, by Return J. Meigs and William F. Cooper (Nashville, 1858), page 481, under Article I (Marriage) of Title 4 (Rights in Domestic Relations), 2437. Marriage cannot be contracted between a white person and a negro, mulatto, or person of mixed blood, to the third generation, inclusive. 2247. In each of the foregoing cases, the party violating these provisions shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

This prohibitive legislation regarding interracial marriage remained in force and so noted in the TENNESSEE CODE ANNOTATED until the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, June 12, 1967 (R. P. Loving and wife v Commonwealth of Virginia) ruled that the freedom to marry or not to marry an individual of whatever race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state. SUPREME COURT REPORTER, volume 87A, 1968, covering volumes 386-388 of U.S. REPORTS, 1817-1824, St. Paul, Minn., 1968. A150, CORPUS JURIS SECUNDUM, American Law Book Co. and West Publishing Company, volume 55, Cumulative Edition, 1995, 829, category 15.

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