" Without questioning the facts, one may
question the interpretation of the facts, and it seems to us that a
wrong interpretation of these stories is partly responsible for the
widespread condemnation of cousin marriage at the present time.
The Bahama Islands furnish one of the stock examples. Clement A. Penrose
writes[92] of them:
"In some of the white colonies where black blood has been excluded, and
where, owing to their isolated positions, frequent intermarriage has
taken place, as for instance at Spanish Wells, and Hopetown, much
degeneracy is present, manifested by many abnormalities of mind and
body.... I am strongly of the opinion that the deplorable state of
degeneracy which we observed at Hopetown has been in a great measure, if
not entirely, brought about by too close intermarrying of the
inhabitants."
To demonstrate his point, he took the pains to compile a family tree of
the most degenerate strains at Hopetown. There are fifty-five marriages
represented, and the chart is overlaid with twenty-three red lines, each
of which is said to represent an intermarriage. This looks like a good
deal of consanguineous mating; but to test the matter a little farther
the fraternity at the bottom of the chart,--eight children, of whom five
were idiots,--was traced.
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