IV. LEGISLATION RESPECTING FREEDMEN. NORTH CAROLINA. per the value of ten dollars or more, and all contracts executed or executory between such persons for the payment of money of the value of ten dollars or more, shall be void as to all persons whatever, unless the same be put in writing and signed by the vendors or debtors, and witnessed by a white person who can read and write. March 10-The act" concerning negroes, and persons of color, or of mixed blood," passed by the Legislature, declares that "negrocs and their issue, even where one ancestor in each succeeding generation to the fourth inclusive, is white, shall be deemed persons of color." It gives them all the privileges of white persons Marriage between white persons and persons before the courts in the mode of prosecuting, de- of color shall be void; and every person aufending, continuing, removing, and transferring thorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony, their suits at law and in equity, and makes them who shall knowingly solemnize the same between eligible as witnesses, when not otherwise incom-such persons, and every clerk of a court who petent, in "all controversies at law and in equity shall knowingly issue license for their marriage, where the rights of persons or property of shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, sons of color shall be put in issue, and would be moreover, shall pay a penalty of five hundred concluded by the judgment or decree of court; dollars to any person suing for the same. and also in pleas of the State, where the violence, fraud, or injury alleged shall be charged to have been done by or to persons of color. In all other civil and criminal cases such evidence shall be deemed inadmissible, unless by consent of the parties of record: Provided, That this section shall not into effect until jurisdiction in matters relating to freedmen shall be fully committed to the courts of this State: Provided further, That no person shall be deemed incompetent to bear testimony in such cases, because of being a party to the record or in interest." go MISSISSIPPI. An Act to regulate the Relation of Master and Apprentice relative to Freedmen, Free Negroes, and Mulattoes, November 22, 1865. SEC. 1 provides that it shall be the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State to report to the probate courts of their respective counties semi-annually, at the January and July terms of said courts, all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under the age of eighteen, within their respective counties, beats, or districts, who are orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse to provide for and support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of said probate court to order the clerk of said court to apprentice said minors to some competent and suitable person, on such terms as the court may direct, having a particular care to the interest of said minors: Provided, That the former owner of said minors shall have the preference when, in the opinion of the court, he or she shall be a suitable person for that purpose. The criminal laws of the State are extended in their operation to embrace persons of color, and the same punishment is inflicted on them as on the whites, except for rape, which, if a white female is the victim, is a capital crime for a black. The law regarding apprentices is so amended as to make its provisions applicable to blacks, but it gives the former masters the preference, and declares that they should be regarded as the most suitable persons. Provision is also made for legalizing the marriages of the blacks contracted during slavery, and for punishment of illicit cohabitation. All which is modified by a proviso that the act shall not take effect until SEC. 2 provides that the said court shall be after the Freedmen's Bureau is removed. Where fully satisfied that the person or persons to whom men and women, lately slaves, now cohabit to said minor shall be apprenticed shall be a suitagether in the relation of husband and wife, they ble person to have the charge and care of said shall be deemed to have been lawfully married minor, and fully to protect the interest of said at the time of the commencement of such cohabi-minor: Provided, That said apprentice shall tation; and they are required to go before the clerk of the county court, acknowledge the cohabitation, of which record shall be made, and shall be prima facie evidence of the statements made. All contracts between any persons whatever, whereof one or more of them shall be a person of color, for the sale or purchase of any horse, mule, ass, jennet, neat cattle, hog, sleep, or goat, whatever may be the value of such articles, and all contracts between such persons for any other article or articles of property whatever of be bound by indenture, in case of males until they are twenty-one years old, and in case of females until they are eighteen years old. SLC. 3 provides that in the management and control of said apprentices said master or mistress shall have power to inflict suck moderate corporeal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to inflict on his or her child or ward at common law: Provided, That in no case shall cruel or inhuman punishment be inflicted. SEC. 4 provides that if any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master or 29 free negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months. SEC. 3 gives all justices of the peace, mayors, and aldermen jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy, and it is made their duty to arrest parties violating any provisions of this act, investigate the charges, and, on conviction, punish as provided. It is made the duty of all sheriffs, constables, town constables, city marshals, and all like officers, to report to some officer having jurisdiction all violations of any of the provisions of this act, and it is made the duty of the county courts to inquire if any officer has neglected any of these duties, and if guilty to fine him not exceeding $100, to be paid into the county treasury. mistress, without his or her consent, said mas- | prisoned, at the discretion of the court, the ter or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him or her before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress; and in the event of a refusal on the part of said apprentice so to return, then said justice shall commit said apprentice to the jail of said county, on failure to give bond, until the next term of the county court; and it shall be the duty of said court, at he first term thereafter, to investigate said case, and if the court shall be of opinion that said apprentice left the employment of his or her master or mistress without good cause, to order him or her to be punished, as provided for the punishment of hired freedmen, as may be from time to time provided for by law for desertion, SEC. 5 provides that all fines and forfeitures until he or she shall agree to return to his or collected under the provisions of this act shall her master or mistress: Provided, That the be paid into the county treasury for general court may grant continuances, as in other cases: county purposes, and in case any freedman, free And provided further, That if the court shall negro or mulatto, shall fail for five days after believe that said apprentice had good cause to the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon quit his said master or mistress, the court shall him or her, for violation of any of the provisdischarge said apprentice from said indenture, ions of this act to pay the same, that it shall be, and also enter a judgment against the master or and is hereby made, the duty of the sheriff of mistress, for not more than one hundred dol- the proper county to hire out said freedman, lars, for the use and benefit of said apprentice, free negro or mulatto, to any person who will, to be collected on execution, as in other cases. for the shortest period of service, pay said SEC. 5 provides that if any person entice away fine or forfeiture and all costs: Provided, A prefany apprentice from his or her master or mis-erence shall be given to the employer, if there ress, or shall knowingly employ an apprentice, or furnish him or her food or clothing, without the written consent of his or her master or mistress, or shall sell or give said apprentice ardent spirits without such consent, said person so of fending shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall on conviction thereof before the county court, be punished as provided for the punishment of persons enticing from their employer hired freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes. SEC. 6 makes it the duty of all civil officers to report any minors within their respective counties to said probate court for apprenticeship. SEC. 9 provides that it shall be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, having a minor child or children, to apprentice the said minor child or children as provided for by this act. SEC. 10 provides that in all cases where the age of the freedman, free negro, or mulatto cannot be ascertained by record testimony, the judge of the county court shall fix the age. The Vagrant Act, November 24, 1865. SEC. 1 defines who are vagrants. SEC 2 provides that all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes in this State, over the age of eighteen years, found on the second Monday in January, 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free negro, or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in the sum of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free negro or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white man two hundred dollars and im-' be one, in which case the employer shall be entitled to deduct and retain the amount so paid from the wages of such freedman, free negro or mulatto, then due or to become due; and in case such freedman, free negro or mulatto cannot be hired out, he or she may be dealt with as a pauper. SEC. 6 provides that the same duties and liabilities existing among white persons of this State shall attach to freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, to support their indigent families and all colored paupers; and that in order to secure a support for such indigent freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, it shall be lawful, and it is hereby made the duty of the boards of county police of each county in this State, to levy a poll or capitation tax on each and every freedman, free negro or mulatto, between the ages of eighteen and sixty years, not to exceed the sum of one dollar annually to each person so taxed, which tax when collected shall be paid into the county treasurer's hands, and constitute a fund to be called the freedmen's pauper fund, which shall be applied by the commissioners of the poor for the maintenance of the poor of the freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, of this State, under such regulations as may be established by the boards of the county police in the respective counties of this State. SEC. 7 provides that if any freedman, free negro or mulatto shall fail or refuse to pay any tax levied according to the provisions of the sixth section of this act, it shall be prima facic evidence of vagrancy, and it shall be the duty of the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free negro or mulatto, or such persons refusing or neglecting to pay such tax, and proceed at once to hire, for the shortest time, such delinquent tax payer to any one who will pay the said tax, with the accruing costs, giving preference to the employer, if there be one. of his beat, authorizing him or her to do irregu lar and job work, or a written contract, as provided in section six of this act; which licenses may be revoked for cause at any time by tho authority granting the same. An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, | village, from the member of the board of police and for other Purposes, November 25, 1865. SECTION 1 provides that all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all the courts of law and equity of this State, and may acquire personal property and choses in action by decent or purchase, and may dispose of the same in the same manner and to the same extent that white persons may: Provided, That the provisions of this section shall not be so construed as to allow any freedman, free negro or mulatto to rent or lease any lands or tenements, except in incorporated towns or cities, in which places the corporate authorities shall control the same. SEC. 6 provides that all contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes, and inulattoes, for a longer period than one month, shall be in writing and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free negro, or mulatto by a beat, city, or county officer or two disinterested white persons of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which each party shall have one; and said contracts shall be taken and SEC. 2 provides that all freedmen, free negroes held as entire contracts, and if the laborer shall and mulattoes may intermarry with each other quit the service of the employer before the expiin the same manner and under the same regula-ration of his term of service without good cause, tions that are provided by law for white per- he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to tho sons: Provided, That the clerk of probate shall time of quitting. keep separate records of the same. SEC. 7. provides that every civil officer shall, SEC. 3 further provides that all freedmen, free and every person may arrest and carry back to negroes and mulattoes, who do now and have his or her legal employer any freedman, free neheretofore lived and cohabited together as hus-gro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service band and wife shall be taken and held in law as legally married, and the issue shall be taken and held as legitimate for all purposes. That it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free negro or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free negro or mulatto; and any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction thereof, shall be confined in the State penitentiary for life; and those shall be deemed freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes who are of pure negro blood, and those descended from a negro to the third generation, inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person. of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employé aforesaid the sum of five doflars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and the same shall be paid by the employer and held as a set-off for so much against the wages of said deserting employé: Provided, That said arrested party after being so returned may appeal to a justice of the peace or member of the board of the police of the county, who, on notice to the alleged employer, shall try, summarily, whether said appellant is legally employed by the alleged employer and has good cause to quit said employer; either party shall have the right of appeal to the county court, pending which the alleged deserter shall be remanded to the alleged employer, or otherwise disposed of as shall be right and just; and the decision of the county court shall be final. SEC. 4 provides that in addition to cases in which freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes are now by law competent witnesses, freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes shall be competent in civil cases, when a party or parties to the suit, either plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or defendants; also in cases where freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes are either plaintiff or plaintiffs, SEC. 8 provides that upon affidavit made by defendant or defendants, and a white person or the employer of any freedman, free negro, or white persons is or are the opposing party or mulatto, or other credible person, before any parties, plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or de- justice of the peace or member of the board fendants. They shall also be competent wit-of police, that any freedman, free negro, or nesses in all criminal prosecutions where the mulatta, legally employed by said employer, crime charged is alleged to have been com- has illegally deserted said employment, such mitted by a white person upon or against justice of the peace or member of the board the person or property of a freedman, free of police shall issue his warrant or warrants, negro or mulatto: Provided, That in all cases returnable before himself or other such officer, said witnesses shall be examined in open court directed to any sheriff, constable, or special on the stand, except, however, they may be deputy, commanding him to arrest said deexamined before the grand jury, and shall in serter and return him or her to said employer, all cases be subject to the rules and tests of the and the like proceedings shall be had as provided common law as to competency and credibility. in the preceding section; and it shall be lawful SEC. 5 provides that every freedman, free for any officer to whom such warrant shall be negro, and mulatto shall on the second Mon- directed to execute said warrant in any county day of January, one thousand eight hundred and of this State, and that said warrant may be sixty-six, and annually thereafter, have a law- transmitted without indorsement to any like ful home or employment, and shall have writ- officer of another county to be executed and reten evidence thereof, as follows, to wit: If liv- turned as aforesaid, and the said employer shall ing in any incorporated city, town, or village, pay the cost of said warrants and arrest and rea license from the mayor thereof, and if living turn, which shall be set off for so much against outside of any incorporated city, town, or the wages of said deserter. SEC. 9 provides that if any person shall persuade, or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to desert from the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freed man, free negro, or mulatto any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than two hundred dollars and the costs; and if said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceed free negro or mulatto, for the shortest time to raise the amount necessary to discharge said freedman, free negro or mulatto from all costs, fines, and jail fees aforesaid. An Act to punish certain Offences therein named, and for other purposes, November 29, 1865. free negro, or mulatto, not in the military ser SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That no freedman, vice of the United States Government, and not licensed to do so by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or bowie-knife; shall be punished by fine, not exceeding ten doland on conviction thereof, in the county court, ing two months' imprisonment in the county all such arms or ammunition shall be forfeited to lars, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and jail, and he or she shall, moreover, be liable to the informer; and it shall be the duty of every the party injured in damages: Provided, If any civil and military officer to arrest any freedman, person shall, or shall attempt to, persuade, en-free negro, or mulatto found with any such arms tice, or cause any freedinan, free negro, or mulatto to desert from any legal employment of any person with the view to employ said freedman, free negro, or mulatto without the limits of this State, such person, on conviction, shall be fined not less than fifty dollars and not more than five hundred dollars and costs; and if said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding six months' imprisonment in the county jail. SEC. 10 provides that it shall be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to charge any white person, freedman, free negro, or mulatto, by affidavit, with any criminal offence against his or her person or property, and upon such affidavit the proper process shall be issued and executed as if said affidavit was made by a white person, and it shall be lawful for freedman, free negro, or mulatto, in any action, suit, or controversy pending or about to be instituted in any court of law or equity in this State, to make any all needful and lawful affidavits as shall be ne cessary for the institution, prosecution, or defence of such suit or controversy. SEC. 11 provides that the penal laws of this State, in all cases not otherwise specially provided for, shall apply and extend to all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes. An Act Supplementary to "An Act to confor Civil Rights upon Freedmen," and for other purposes, December 2, 1865. for trial in default of bail. SEC. 2. That any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, committing riots, routes, affrays, trespasses, malicious mischief and cruel treatment to animals, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, language, or acts, or assaults on any person, disturbance of of the gospel without a license from some reguthe peace, exercising the functions of a minister intoxicating liquors, or committing any other larly organized church, vending spirituous or misdemeanor, the punishment of which is not specifically provided for by law, shall, upon conviction thereof, in the county court, be fined not less than ten dollars, and not more than one hun dred dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the dis cretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days. SEC. 3. That if any white person shall sell, lend, or give to any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, any fire-arms, dirk, or bowie-knife, or ammunition, or any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, such person or persons so offending, upon conviction thereof, in the county court of his or her county, shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days. SEC. 4. That all the penal and criminal laws now in force in this State, defining offences, and prescribing the mode of punishment for crimes and misdemeanors committed by slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, be and the same are hereby re-enacted, and declared to be in full force and effect, against freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, except so far as the mode and manner of trial and punishment have been changed or altered by law. SEC. 5. That if any freedman, free negro or mulatto, convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or refuse, for the space of five days after conviction, to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at pr blic outcry, to any white person who will pay aid fine and all costs, and take such convict for she shortest time. SEC. 1 provides that in every case where any white person has been arrested and brought to trial, by virtue of the provisions of the tenth section of the above recited act, in any court in this State, upon sufficient proof being made to the court or jury, upon the trial before said court, that any freedman, free negro or mulatto has falsely and maliciously caused the arrest and trial of said white person or persons, the court shall render up a judgment against said freedman, free negro or mulatto for all costs of the case, and impose a fine not to exceed fifty dollars, and imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed twenty days; and for a failure of said freedmen, free negro or mulatto to pay, or cause to be paid, all costs, fines and jail fees, the sheriff of the county is hereby authorized 1865, December 15-Free persons of color are and required, after giving ten days' public no-made competent witnesses in all courts in casas tice, to proceed to hire out at public outcry, at where a free person of color is a party, or tl o the court-house of the county, said freedman, offence charged is against the person or property GEORGIA. of a free person of color. Persons of color now living as husband and wife are declared to be so, except a man has two or more reputed wives, or a wife two or more reputed husbands; in such event, they shall select one and the marriage ceremony be performed. 1866, Feb. 23-All male inhabitants, white and black, between sixteen and fifty, subject to work on the public roads, except such as are specially exempted. March 7-Any officer knowingly issuing any marriage license to parties, either of whom is of African descent and the other a white person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be fined from two hundred to five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for three months, or both. Any officer or minister marrying such persons shall be fined from five hundred to one thousand dollars, and imprisoned six months, or both. March 9-That among persons of color the parent shall be required to maintain his or her children, whether legitimate or illegitimate. That children shall be subjected to the same obligations, in relation to their parents, as those which existing relation to white persons. That every colored child hereafter born, is declared to be the legitimate child of his mother, and also of his colored father, if acknowledged by such father. To Amend the Penal Code. March 12-The 4,435th section of the Penal Code shall read as follows: | March 17-County courts organized, as in other States, for hearing of cases arising out of the relation of master and servant," &c. Where such cases shall go against the servant, the judgment for costs upon written notice to the master shall operate as a garnishment against him, and he shall retain a sufficient amount for the payment thereof, out of any wages due to said servant, or to become due during the period of service, and may be cited at any time by the collecting officer to make answer thereto. March 17-SEC. 1. That all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes, and their descendants having one eighth negro or African blood in their veins, shall be known in this State as "persons of color." 2. That persons of color shall have the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be sued, to be parties and give evidence, to inherit, to purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the secu rity of person and estate, and shall not be subjected to any other or different punishment, pain or penalty, for the commission of any act or offense, than such as are prescribed for white persons committing like acts or offenses. March 20-Crimes defined in certain sections named, as felonies are reduced below felonies, and all other crimes, punishable by fine or imprisonment or either, shall be likewise punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, imprisonment not exceeding six months, whipping not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, to work in a chaingang on the public works not to exceed twelve months, and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered in the discretion of the judge. ALABAMA. color in this State to own fire-arms, or carry about his person a pistol or other deadly weapon," under a penalty of a fine of $100 or imprisonment three months. Also, making it unlawful for any person to sell, give, or lend fire-arms of ammunition of any description whatever to any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, under a penalty of not less than $50 not more than $100 at the discretion of the jury. All persons wandering or strolling about in idleness, who are able to work, and who have no property to support them; all persons leading an idle, immoral, or profligate life, who have no property to support them, and are able to work and do not work; all persons able to work having no visible and known means of a fair, honest, and reputable livelihood; all persons having a fixed abode, who have no visible December Bill passed, "making it unlawproperty to support them, and who live by steal-ful for any freedmen, mulatto, or free person of ing or by trading in, bartering for, or buying stolen property; and all professional gamblers living in idleness, shall be deemed and considered vagrants, and shall be indicted as such, and it shall be lawful for any person to arrest said vagrants and have them bound over for trial to the next term of the county court, and upon conviction, they shall be fined and imprisoned or sentenced to work on the public works, for not longer than a year, or shall, in the discretion of the court, be bound out to some person for a time not longer than one year, upon such valuable consideration as the court may prescribe; the person giving bond in a sum not exceeding $300, payable to said court and conditioned to clothe and feed, and provide said convict with medical attendance for and during said time: Provided, That the defendant may, at any time, before conviction, be discharged, upon paying costs and giving bond and security in a sum not exceeding $200, payable to said court, and condition for the good behavior and industry of defendant for one year. December 9-This bill passed: That all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, shall have the right to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded in all the different and various courts of this State, to the same extent that white persons now. have by law. And they shall be competent to testify only in open court, and only in cases in which freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes are parties, either plaintiff or defendant, and in civil or criminal cases, for injuries in the persons and property of freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, and in all cases, civil or criminal, in which a freedman, free negro, or mulatto, is a witness against a white person, or a white perMarch 8-The wilful and malicious burning son against a freedman, free negro, or mulatto, of an occupied dwelling-house of another on a the parties shall be competent witnesses, and farm, or plantation, or elsewhere, shall be pun- neither interest in the question or suit, nor mar. ished with death; also burglary in the night;riage, shall disqualify any witness from testifyalso stealing a horse or mule, unless recom-ing in open court. mended by the jury to the mercy of the court. 1866, Febuary 16-A law was enacted, of |