The institution of marriage has had an elongated and blemished past. Not always called

marriage this sacred state had slipped through history under many impersonations and

• Monogamy - summarizes an union of male and female or todays same sex couples, so long as the partners are only sleeping with one another.

• Polygamy - is the practice of one man or woman with numerous spouses of the opposite sex. Often, the need for this type of arrangement came from times of war, affliction or other disaster.

• Polyamory - is a multiple-partnered marriage whereby the partners get together out of love.

• Common-Law - is the relationship of a couple without legal ceremony or license.

The Puritans moved marriage to a point where love counted and delighting in the state

of marriage became commonplace, yet extremely committed. The Victorian period dragged

marriage into the closet. Sex was something embarrassing and improper with a quiet

understanding that married couples engaged in marital relations, without pleasure and as duty

and God dictated for the purpose of procreation.

Here are hisorical notations about some of the dramatic changes in the legal structure of marriage.

without the marriage label. Cott spoke at length about the fundamental changes brought to

• British American Colonies The Pilgrims outlawed courtship of a daughter or a female servant unless her parents or master first consented. In about 1625, Englishman Thomas Morton established "Merry Mount," a plantation where whites and Native Americans openly engaged in sexual relations. Puritan Pilgrims, who believe only in marital sexuality, deport him three years later for reviving the erotic pagan May Day festival. In 1638, Massachusetts law required that every town "dispose of all single persons" At about the same time, Connecticut taxed bachelors 20 shillings a week. There was no penalty for interracial marriages in any of the British colonies in North America until 1662. That year, Virginia doubled the fine for fornication between interracial couples. Maryland became the first colony to ban interracial marriages in 1664. In 1691, Virginia law banished whites who marry or have sex with a "Negro, mulatto or Indian." By 1705 the punishment had been upped to six months imprisonment and a 10-pound fine. By 1750, all southern colonies, plus Massachusetts and Pennsylvania outlawed interracial marriages. For the Puritans in Massachusetts Bay, marriage was strictly a civil and not an ecclesiastical ceremony until 1686. Under English common law, until the middle of the 19th century, married women had no legal standing. They could not own property, sign contracts, or legally control any earned wages.

partner who is not married to an employee, whether of the same sex or not. Very few insurance

and is a relationship, not with the state, but between the couple, their religion and usually their

polygamy was far more common that monogamous marriage in much of the "civilized"

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