Note 1343 — Chapter XVI · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF MARRIAGE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903

By the statute of Tennessee marriage is prohibited between white persons and "negroes, mulattoes, or persons of mixed blood, descended from a negro to the third generation inclusive, or their living together as man and wife." Violation of the act is made a felony punishable by confinement in the penitentiary for a period of one to five years; though, on recommendation of the jury, the court may substitute a fine and imprisonment in the county jail: Code (1884), 608; ibid. (1896), 1038.

The law of Alabama is in substance the same; although to the clause prohibiting intermarriage "to the third generation inclusive," the Code, sec. 4018, when affixing the penalty, adds the words, "though one ancestor of each generation was a white person": see Code of Ala. (1897), II, 381; Wright, Report, 36.