The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1867-03-16
The Cecil Wing.
ELKTON, MARCH I6, 1867.
Our MulattO Crop.

our MulattO crop.
The Maryland legislature appears to be
sorely troubled about the matrimonial and
sexual relations of the white and black races.
of this State, and have been giving the sub
ject considerable attention. They have re-
Gently been at work on law prohibiting the
ntermarriage Of whites and blacks; and
early in the session repealed one section of
the Code entitled " Formation with Ne
groes,i which had been rendered inopcra-
tive by emancipation, and re-enactcd it SO
rs to read
Section l52. If any negro mulatto shall get any
white woman with child upon conviction thereof in tic
courts of the county city having jurisdiction, either
when such child was begotten born shall be
fenced to the Pcnentiary for not less than eighteen
months nor more than five years.
Now, since it is a very poor rule that won't
work both ways, we would like to know why
| this law was left in such an unfinished CON
dtion? If it is intended, as its caption i'm
plies, to prevent " fornication with negroes"
why does it not apply equally to white and
black men? Why does it it punish sexual
| connexions between a black man and white
woman, and not between white man and
|
| black woman?
| Is the former offence more heinous than
the latter? or less repugnant to morality and
| common dcconcy? Or are the negroes and
mulattoes of this State SO often guilty of the
offence which this law is intended to pre-.
vent and punish that it requires special legis.
ation, while the whites are so innocent that
no legislation is required to restrain them?
A mulatto is the offspring Of parents of
whom one is white and the other black, and
there are great many thousand mulattoes
in the State of Maryland. Who're did they
come from? We believe it is universally
conceded that the fathers OF nine hundred
and ninety.nine in every thousand OF them
are white; and If the fathers Of the remain
der nre not white too, we have been wrongly
informed. Where then is the sense Of pass.
ing such a imping, one.fcgeed sort Of a law?
| If Hgrcat majority of the mulattoes in the
State hnd black fathers, such legislation
would escape comment from us: but since
the boot is on the other foot and it is only
black women who are tho mothers Of mulat
to children, We would like to know why the
white fathers of them should not have some
! of the benefits of this law? 1t strikes us
, tnat if Justice were impartialy administered
the coicr of the father of muatlo child
! should not make saCt vast difference as to
let him 90 scotfrue if be is white: ana send
him to the pententiary if he is black. We
| have no objections to sending the black man
| to the penitentiapy for the offence specified.
But why should not equal punishment be
inflicted upon white and black criminals =
Was this law enacted to verify the old adage
Of one mans meat being another mans
poison; and to warrant MS in gaWgng crime
by the color Of the skin -!
| The virtue of the black race is H. much
greater need Of projections because Of their
inferior social position, than is that Of the
white race; and it is insulting to the fair
fame of our daughters and sisters to have
such q lop, SIDED law upon the statute books.
There is no one fool enough to not know
that if this law applied to both races alike,
or was so amended even, las to read "white
man. instead Of negro or mulatto, and
'black woman, instead Of "white woman,"
that there would be a very crowded pcnten'
tiary in Baltimore, or very perccptib!c de
crease in the annual mulatto crop Of the
State; while as it reads at present, it will
not affect either, one iota. Cnder the old
savcocracy such laws were not inappropri-
ate. Slave breeding then paid and such
law was virtually license for white and
black men TO roam at will among the slave
women. 1t protected the virtue Of the white
woman, and increased the income of the
black woman's owner, since every child she
had was 80 many dollars in his pocket. But
why it should be re-enaccd in 1867 we are
unable to account for in any other manner
than by the fact that there is something so
demoralizing in slavery, that the niquitics
of the parents descend upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation, and
make them glory in their shame, and Ell.
deayor to ilaunt in the eyes Of all the world,
the shame Of their ancestors.
We intended saying something about
the law prohibiting the inlcrmarriagc of
whites and blacks, but will content ourself
for the present with asking our ncghbor of
Tile Democrat and other copperhead moral
lists, which is the greatest violator of all
moral and divine laws, the white man who
lives in virtuous wcdlock with q black wife
or the white man who holds promiscous car.
nal intercourse with a dozen black women?
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