Precedents

The practice of inter-racial relationships is almost as old as our nation’s founding. “The first recorded interracial marriage in North American history took place between John Rolfe and Pocahontas in 1614.”  This practice would grow to the point that there were once 60,000+ inter-racial relationships within the American Colonies. This trend would soon be curttailed however, when the colonial lawmakers began to adopt the perception that African descendents were inferior to their white counterparts. Fear coupled with this line of thought led to the eventual establishment of Segregation and anti-miscegenation laws.

The first legislation prohibiting inter-racial relationships was passed in Virginia in 1661. Maryland would eventually follow suit in 1715 and 1717 by passing laws that forbade the cohabitation of person’s haveing different racial backgrounds. The development of slavery only fueled the fire and led to even more invasive laws.