Instead I would like to paste the article so that the readers on this forum see the evidence for themselves against those who object wrongfully and without evidence on marriage of young adults.
Age of Consent in European & American History
By Discover The Truth • September 9, 2013
What was the ‘Age of Consent’ in European and American history, prior to the 20th century? In this article, I shall bring forth evidences which demonstrate that the ‘Age of consent’ was indeed, very young, even by today’s standards. I will provide academic sources which show that girls were allowed to be married at the age of 10 years old and sometimes times, as young as 7 years old, legally. It was norm just over 100 years ago to see girls being married off at very young ages. In most cultures, the marriage would have been consummated at the onset of puberty.
1. Professor of history Margaret Wade Labarge
2. Professor Richard Wortley and Professor Stephen Smallbone, both of whom state that prior to the 1900s girls married very young,
3. In the book, ‘Sex and Society’,
4. Richard A. Posner is chief judge of the U.S court of appeals, Seventh Circuit Chicago. Katherine B. Silbaugh is associate Professor at Boston University School of Law, they say that before the 1900s age of consent was ten years old,
5. The Scottish Law prior to 1900s by Sir John Comyns and Stewart Kyd,
6. Professor of Sociology Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese says that a 50 year old man being with a girl under 10 (being intimate) Under United States law was legal until the mid 1960s,
7. Maureen Dabbagh is a writer and author. Born in Michigan, she serves as a Virginia Supreme Court Family Mediator, she echoes the same statements as previous authors,
8. Mike A. Males is an American sociologist who writes from a pro youth rights perspective. Males is a professor at the University of California, he writes,
9. Arthur Siccan Author of the Book: ‘What’s Wrong in America: A Look at Troublesome Issues in Our Country’, goes in a lot of detail on the issue of marriage at earlier times,
10. The ’American Bar Association’ Journal [August 1996]:
11. Sinikka Elliott
12. Susan M. Ross
13. Carolyn Cocca:
14. Merril D. Smith says that the age which a girl could marry was 10 to 13 in most societies,
15. Melissa Hope Ditmore
16. Caryn Neumann
17. Martha Rosenthal:
18. Paula S. Fass
19. Edward J. Wood says that Thomas Lord Berkley was contracted to a girl who was at the time 7 years old and were to consummate the marriage 4 years later, but due to illness the marriage was consummated the following year,
The following Table below shows most of the European countries and American States, ‘Age of Consent.’
I would like to thank ‘chnm.gnm.edu’ for all the information they have provided on age of consent in 1880. I retrieved the information from this website:
http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/24
Source
Date compiled from the following sources: Hirschfeld, Magnus. The Homosexuality of Men and Women. Translated by Michael Lombardi-Nash. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2000; Killias, Martin. “The Emergence of a New Taboo: The Desexualization of Youth in Western Societies Since 1800.” European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 8 (2000): 466; Odem, Mary. Delinquent Daughters: Policing and Protecting Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995; “Worldwide Ages of Consent,” AVERTing HIV and Aids,
http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm (accessed November 29, 2007).
Primary Source Text: Age Limit in Age of Consent Laws in Selected Countries.
| 1880 | 1920 | 2007 |
---|
Austria | 14 | 14 | 14 |
Belgium | – | 16 | 16 |
Bulgaria | 13 | 13 | 14 |
Denmark | 12 | 12 | 15 |
England & Wales | 13 | 16 | 16 |
Finland | – | 12 | 16 |
France | 13 | 13 | 15 |
Germany | 14 | 14 | 14 |
Greece | – | 12 | 15 |
Italy | – | 16 | 14 |
Luxembourg | 15 | 15 | 16 |
Norway | – | 16 | 16 |
Portugal | 12 | 12 | 14 |
Romania | 15 | 15 | 15 |
Russia | 10 | 14 | 16 |
Scotland | 12 | 12 | 16 |
Spain | 12 | 12 | 13 |
Sweden | 15 | 15 | 15 |
Switzerland | various | 16 | 16 |
Turkey | 15 | 15 | 18 |
Argentina | – | 12 | 13 |
Brazil | – | 16 | 14 |
Chile | 20 | 20 | 18 |
Ecuador | – | 14 | 14 |
Canada | 12 | 14 | 14 |
Australia | | | |
New South Wales | 12 | 16 | 16 |
Queensland | 12 | 17 | 16 |
Victoria | 12 | 16 | 16 |
Western Australia | 12 | 14 | 16 |
United States | | | |
Alabama | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Alaska | – | 16 | 16 |
Arizona | 12 | 18 | 18 |
Arkansas | 10 | 16 | 16 |
California | 10 | 18 | 18 |
Colorado | 10 | 18 | 15 |
Connecticut | 10 | 16 | 16 |
District of Columbia | 12 | 16 | 16 |
Delaware | 7 | 16 | 16 |
Florida | 10 | 18 | 18 |
Georgia | 10 | 14 | 16 |
Hawaii | – | – | 16 |
Idaho | 10 | 18 | 18 |
Illinois | 10 | 16 | 17 |
Indiana | 12 | 16 | 16 |
Iowa | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Kansas | 10 | 18 | 16 |
Kentucky | 12 | 16 | 16 |
Louisiana | 12 | 18 | 17 |
Maine | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Maryland | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Massachusetts | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Michigan | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Minnesota | 10 | 18 | 16 |
Mississippi | 10 | 18 | 16 |
Missouri | 12 | 18 | 17 |
Montana | 10 | 18 | 16 |
Nebraska | 10 | 18 | 17 |
Nevada | 12 | 18 | 16 |
New Hampshire | 10 | 16 | 16 |
New Jersey | 10 | 16 | 16 |
New Mexico | 10 | 16 | 17 |
New York | 10 | 18 | 17 |
North Carolina | 10 | 16 | 16 |
North Dakota | 10 | 18 | 18 |
Ohio | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Oklahoma | – | – | 16 |
Oregon | 10 | 16 | 18 |
Pennsylvania | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Rhode Island | 10 | 16 | 16 |
South Carolina | 10 | 16 | 16 |
South Dakota | 10 | 18 | 16 |
Tennessee | 10 | 18 | 18 |
Texas | 10 | 18 | 17 |
Utah | 10 | 18 | 16 |
Vermont | 10 | 16 | 16 |
Virginia | 12 | 16 | 18 |
Washington | 12 | 18 | 16 |
West Virginia | 12 | 16 | 16 |
Wisconsin | 10 | 16 | 18 |
Wyoming | 10 | 16 | 16 |
[20]
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References:
[1] A Medieval Miscellany By Margaret Wade Labarge page 52
[2]Internet Child Pornography: Causes, Investigation, and Prevention By Richard Wortley, Stephen Smallbon page 10
[3] Sex and Society, Volume 1 page 54
[4] A Guide to America’s Sex Laws by Richard A. Posner & Katharine B. Silbaugh page 44
[5] Sir John Comyns, Stewart Kyd A Digest of the Laws of England, Volume 2, page 73
[6] Opposing Hate Speech By Professor of Sociology Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese page 85
[7] Parental Kidnapping in America: An Historical and Cultural Analysis By Maureen Dabbagh Page 128
[8] Teenage Sex and Pregnancy: Modern Myths, Unsexy Realities By Mike A. Males page 40
[9] What’s Wrong in America: A Look at Troublesome Issues in Our Country By Arthur Siccan
[10] ABA [American Bar Association] Journal Aug 1996 page 87
[11] Not My Kid: What Parents Believe about the Sex Lives of Their Teenagers By Sinikka Elliott page 14-15
[12] American Families Past and Present: Social Perspectives on Transformations by Susan M. Ross page 40
[13] Adolescent Sexuality: A Historical Handbook and Guide by Carolyn Cocca page 15
[14] Encyclopedia of r*pe by Merril D. Smith page 40
[15] Prostitution and Sex Work By Melissa Hope Ditmore page xxi [Introduction]
[16] Sexual Crime: A Reference Handbook By Caryn Neumann page 17
[17] Human Sexuality: From Cells to Society, [1st ed.: From Cells to Society] By Martha Rosenthal page 422
[18] The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World by Paula S. Fass page 235
[19] Edward J. Wood, The wedding day in all ages and countries (1869) page 209 – 210
[20] “Age of Consent Laws
,” in Children and Youth in History, Item #24,
http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/24 (accessed September 7, 2013). Annotated by Stephen Robertson
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