Marriage of Charlie Johns and Eunice Winstead

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Het door de wetten van Tennessee goedgekeurde huwelijk tussen de 22-jarige Charles Johns en de, SFA022817385.jpg
Het door de wetten van Tennessee goedgekeurde huwelijk tussen de 22-jarige Charles Johns en de, SFA022817386.jpg
Charlie and Eunice Johns

The marriage of 22-year-old Charlie Johns and 9-year-old Eunice Winstead was a child marriage that took place in the state of Tennessee, United States, in January 1937. [1] [2] [3] The event received national attention after Life magazine published an article about the union the following month. [4]

Contents

In response to Johns and Winstead's marriage, the state of Tennessee introduced a law setting the minimum age of marriage at sixteen years. Other jurisdictions (including Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C.) introduced similar laws. [4] The couple remained married after the Tennessee law was passed, [5] and the marriage lasted until Johns' death in 1997. [2] Johns and Winstead had nine children.

Marriage

On January 19, 1937, 22-year-old tobacco farmer Charlie Johns married his 9-year-old neighbor, Eunice Winstead. [1] [6] The couple was joined by Baptist preacher Walter Lamb in Sneedville, Hancock County. [1] [2] [4] Johns offered Lamb a dollar (equivalent to $22in 2024) to perform the marriage. [7] To get to the wedding without her parents' knowledge, Winstead told them she was going out to get a doll. [8]

Johns falsified Winstead's age in order to obtain their marriage license. [9] [1] At the time of their marriage, the state of Tennessee had no minimum age for marriage. [4] Winstead's mother had married at the age of sixteen, and her sister Ina married at thirteen. [1] Though the mothers of Johns and Winstead initially believed that Eunice was too young to marry, they ultimately decided to approve of the marriage. [10]

Reactions

Johns and Winstead's marriage was discovered by the press approximately ten days after the wedding. [8] It was then widely covered by American newspapers and magazines. [4] The union was reported by The Times and Life magazines, along with The New York Times . It also inspired the 1938 film Child Bride . [3] Johns avoided media attention, accusing reporters of making things up, and he did not allow any photographs to be taken of his wife and children. [8]

A 1937 piece published by Life about the case displayed a picture of Winstead and Johns at their home in Sneedville. [4] In a news article published that year, The Knoxville Journal reported that "The Winstead family seems complacent over the future of the 9-year-old bride because Charlie, the bridegroom, owns 50 acres of mountain land, several mules and he's a good farmer". [1] [2] Another article in Newsweek portrayed Winstead sitting on Johns' knees. [11]

Reactions to the marriage triggered a change to the law in Tennessee, forbidding marriage of individuals under the age of 16, even if they have parental consent. It provided for exceptions in cases such as pregnancy. [12]

Later life

Winstead dropped out of school in 1937. [13] She attended school for two days but her husband pulled her out after she was switched for misbehaving. [14] State law was changed to reflect that married children were exempt from compulsory education. [15]

As of 1938 the couple still lived with Johns' parents. [16] They slept together in the same room. [7] In December 1942, at the age of fifteen, Winstead gave birth to the couple's first child. They subsequently had eight more children. [2] [9] Johns objected when his oldest child, 17-year-old Evelyn, eloped in 1960 with 20-year-old John Antrican. He alleged that Antrican had falsified Evelyn's age to obtain a marriage license. [12] Johns and Winstead remained married until Johns' death in 1997. Winstead died in 2006. [2] [9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 L. Syrett, Nicholas (October 3, 2016). "Chapter Eight. Marriage Comes Early in the Mountains: The Persistence of Child Marriage in the Rural South". American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States. University of North Carolina Press. doi:10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629537.003.0009. ISBN   978-1-4696-2953-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Carey, Bill (October 9, 2023). "The creepy stories behind Tennessee's marriage laws". Tullahoma News. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Syrett, Nicholas L. (2014). "Imagining Rural Sexuality in the Depression Era: Child Brides, Exploitation Film, and the Winstead-Johns Marriage". American Studies Association . Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tsui, Anjali. "Married Young: The Fight Over Child Marriage in America". PBS . Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  5. ↑ Fox, Lauren (2019). "Child Marriage in the United States". Law School Student Scholarship– via Seton Hall University repository.
  6. ↑ Nivès, R. (March 1937). Enlèvement de Mineure ou Mariage Légal (in French). Police Magazine.
  7. 1 2 "Religion: What God Hath Joined". Time. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 "Child Bride, Wed Nine Years Ago, Now 18, Happy With Mate, Babies". Chattanooga Daily Times. May 21, 1946. p. 9.
  9. 1 2 3 Pylant, James (September 28, 2020). "A Child Bride in Tennessee". Genealogy Magazine. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  10. ↑ John, Mary E. (2021). Child Marriage in an International Frame. Taylor & Francis. p. 75. ISBN   9781000373448.
  11. ↑ Robertson, Stephen (2006). Crimes Against Children: Sexual Violence and Legal Culture in New York City, 1880-1960. University of North Carolina Press. p. 191. ISBN   9780807876480.
  12. 1 2 "Tennessee School Board Are Faced With Problem of Student Marriages". Morristown Gazette Mail. August 21, 1963. p. 16.
  13. ↑ "Private Lives". LIFE. Vol. 3, no. 8. Time Inc. August 23, 1937. p. 65. ISSN   0024-3019 . Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  14. ↑ "CHILD BRIDE SWITCHED; Two Days of School Discipline End Her Education in Tennessee". The New York Times. August 9, 1937. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  15. ↑ "Education: Exempt Bride". Time. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  16. ↑ Child Bride Asks to be Let Alone (January 1938). Daily Illini.
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