What's the big deal about a 32-year-old man courting a 14-year-old girl? My maternal grandmother was 15 years old when she married and 16 years old when she conceived her first child. Her husband was 41 and 42. They had 10 children during the next 20 years. This was normal back then. I'm sure it was normal in Alabama 40 years ago as well. The age of consent in Alabama even today is 16 (with parental consent). Someone said the other day that if Bill Clinton had done his harassing and assaulting today, he'd be vilified, even by his fellow travelers on the left. That's how much has changed in the past couple of decades. Even more has changed in the past 40 years. I'm sick to death of people imposing their own moral standards on people of the past, whether it's Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, George Armstrong Custer, Martin Luther King Jr, or Roy Moore. By the way, Moore has denied the accusation. I'm assuming, for the sake of argument, that he did what he's accused of.
Addendum: Note the regional variation in the percentage of white females who were married between the ages of 15 and 19 in 1880. In the Mid-Atlantic region, only 6.5% of 15- to 19-year old females were married. In the New England region, only 6.7% were married. In the East-South Central region, by contrast, 17.9% were married. In the West-South Central region, 24.1% were married. I suspect that these regional variations continue even today.
Addendum 2: Here is confirmation of my suspicion about the persistence of regional variations.
Addendum 3: According to page 81 of this official report, some 2,617 females aged 15-19 were married in Alabama in 2011. One was married to a man aged 65-69! Seventy-two were married to men in their thirties. It would be interesting to see data for the 1970s.
Addendum 4: Here is my statement about recent events.
Addendum 5: Here is my post about the law of marriage in Alabama.
