And note that posting these statistics doesn't indicate an endorsement on my part, but it's always good to have facts out there.
The above charts come from this page.
Posted on 12/11/2017 4:22:33 PM PST by Brown Deer
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The bride was 14, the groom a little older, at 17. When Richard Baker encountered the couple two years later, it was to work up the papers for their divorce.
''They were young,'' recalled the Birmingham attorney. ''They had problems in the marriage and she didn't come across as being the most mature person. ... She wasn't ready to be married.''
Before he had completed the divorce papers, he got a call from the girl's father. There would be no divorce. The wife, at 16, had died of a drug overdose.
Baker said that case comes to mind first when he thinks about a state law that allows children as young as 14 to marry in Alabama. A bill in the state Legislature that called for raising the minimum age to 16 -- as it is in most other Southern states -- died Thursday night after a filibuster shut down the Senate.
The Alabama law allowing 14-year-olds to marry was enacted in 1852, when the state was largely agrarian and people generally began having children at an earlier age.
But in 2001, a law allowing young people barely into their teens to marry is just plain outdated, said Rep. John Hilliard, D-Birmingham, who sponsored the bill.
''That is too young. Times have changed,'' said Hilliard.
The measure was inspired by news reports that teens under age 16 were brought by adults from Georgia to Alabama for the sole purpose of being married.
Hilliard said he followed stories about the Atlanta-based House of Prayer, which advocates marriage for female church members as young as 14 and has encouraged transporting girls over state lines to marry in Alabama.
Marjorie Baker, who oversees counseling for victims of family violence in Montgomery, said teen-age spouses are often vulnerable and can be emotionally immature.
She said that in her 16 years at the Family Sunshine Center she has seen many cases in which young girls married men an average of 10 years older who were abusive and controlling.
Typically, Baker said, the marriage takes place because the girl is in need of approval from an older man. But the young wife often is not even permitted to have friendships with schoolmates.
''The dynamics are similar ... she is very isolated from family members and of course her social life is very limited -- to none,'' Baker said. ''Also, the female victims don't have the opportunity to advance in their education because they are being encouraged to finish high school and become a housewife.''
Hilliard said he wanted to change the law in part because Florida, Georgia and Tennessee -- states that border Alabama -- have set 16 as the minimum age a person can marry, with the consent of a parent or guardian.
The minimum marrying age is 16 in other Southern states as well, except in Mississippi, which has no minimum age with the consent of a parent or judge, and Arkansas, where the minimum age is 14, according to The Council of State Governments.
North Carolina is considering a law this month that would set 14 as the minimum age, with teens aged 14 and 15 requiring the permission of a circuit judge. Most Southern states allow a female under the age of 16 to marry if she's pregnant.
According to Alabama statistics, 63 brides in 1999 were 14-years-old, compared to 100 in 1995. No boys age 14 were married in 1999, though one 14-year-old boy was married in 1995.
The numbers of teens marrying in Alabama increases starting at the age of 15, with 186 brides in 1999, compared to 232 in 1995. There were six 15-year-old boys married in 1999, compared to eight in 1995.
Statistics from the state Department of Health don't indicate whether the couples are Alabama residents.
Calhoun County Probate Judge Arthur Murray, on the bench more than 25 years, said it's not his official role to make a judgment about marriage at such a young age.
But personally, Murray said his experience is that most teen-age marriages don't last long. There were 44 teens married in Calhoun County in 1999.
''They are not mature enough to make a real lasting decision of that nature,'' Murray said.
My currently living uncle was born when my Grandma was 15 and married.
Just sayin’.
The law made SENSE when we only lived to the ripe old age of 30 - after we popped out a few dozen kids; half of which MIGHT have lived!
Oh, no! Now some LibTard will compare MY comparison to Musket Loaders & AR-15’s and we’ll be off to the races! *SMIRK*
At 14 I would’ve married Donnie Osmond or David Cassidy. 14 year old girls today are dopes; 17 year old boys are even dumber.
I worked with a guy in Western North Carolina. He was a great guy I liked him as well as anyone I have ever known.
One day we were discussing beautiful girls and he happened to mention that he and his wife were married when she was 12 and he was 18. They had been married nearly 40 years.
My older Brother married a 16 year old in Alabama. They had a tough time for the first few years but eventually became comfortable and lived in an old mansion which they restored.
They were a very handsome couple thus not surprising that their four Daughters and one Son were too. Two of their Daughters were queens of their respective universities and I always thought the youngest one was the prettiest of all.
They are now buried beside each other near here.
And note that posting these statistics doesn't indicate an endorsement on my part, but it's always good to have facts out there.
The above charts come from this page.
My wife and I were married in Alabama.
I was 18 and she was 19.
I thought it was funny that my wife could get married at 19 without her parent’s permission, but I had to have my parent’s permission since I wasn’t yet 21.
Oh, as of this past September, we’ve been married 50 years.
In 1989 a 13 year old could married in Utah with parental consent.
This is just a misguided attempt to brand all Alabamians as backward neandrathals prior to Moore’s election tomorrow. Truly disgusting piece of urinalism.
Congratulations.
my aunt and uncle in Iowa were 16 and 15 respectively... if both are roughly the same age then its not that big a deal.
The creepy factor is one is MUCH older than the other.. like 30 to 15... for me at least.
Married 70 years this past Nov...
It was how young women were provided for in the era of sharecropping. To not havevallowed it, at the time, would have made things much worse.
It was how young women were provided for in the era of sharecropping. To not havevallowed it, at the time, would have made things much worse.
It was how young women were provided for in the era of sharecropping. To not have allowed it, at the time, would have made things much worse.
It was how young women were provided for in the era of sharecropping. To not have allowed it, at the time, would have made things much worse.
My mom’s from western Carolina. My aunt and her boyfriend at the ripe old ages of 15 & 16 respectively were married about 63 years ago and going strong. (She makes the world’s best beef stew and biscuits on her old wood stove.)
Lordy,beef stew and biscuits——I’d kill for some right now.
My kind of food.
.
Could somebody please delete the last three comments. It happened because my wifi can be iffy at times.
I mean really? The last time people live to the age of 30 was probably 1000 years ago.
It’s a 2001 article, shows state of affairs at that time.
My Mother cooked on a wood stove for maybe the first 15 years they were married.
She once told me that it cooked better than any other one she has used. I later read that they do indeed cook better because they are cast iron and heat much more evenly.
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