Note 6 — Chapter XVII · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF DIVORCE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903

"All marriages which are prohibited by law on account of consanguinity or affinity between the parties, or on account of either of them having a former wife or husband then living; all marriages, solemnized when either of the parties was insane or an idiot, and all marriages, between a white person and a negro, Indian or mulatto," shall, if solemnized within the state, be absolutely void, "without any decree of divorce, or other legal process."—Rev. Stat. of the Com. of Mass. (1836), 479. The same is true when either of the parties is under the age of consent, "if they shall separate during such nonage, and shall not cohabit together afterwards."—Ibid., 479. The clause forbidding marriages between a white person and a negro, Indian, or mulatto was repealed Feb. 25, 1843: Supp. to Rev. Stat., 1836-53 (1854), 248; Acts and Resolves (1843), 4.