Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

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, until he or she shall agree to return to his or her master or mistress: Provided, That the court may grant continuances, as in other cases: And provided further, That if the court shall believe that said apprentice had good cause to quit his said master or mistress, the court shall discharge said apprentice from said indenture, and also enter a judgment against the master or mistress, for not more than one hundred dollars, for the use and benefit of said apprentice, to be collected on execution, as in other cases. SEC. 5 provides that if any person entice away any apprentice from his or her master or mistress, 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 mu lattoes, 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

SEC. 5 provides that all fines and forfeitures collected under the provisions of this act shall be paid into the county treasury for general county purposes, and in case any freedman, free negro or mulatto, shall fail for five days after the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon him or her, for violation of any of the provisions of this act to pay the same, that it shall be, and is hereby made, the duty of the sheriff of the proper county to hire out said freedman, free negro or mulatto, to any person who will, for the shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and all costs: Provided, A preference shall be given to the employer, if there 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.

An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, 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 descent 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. 2 provides that all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes may intermarry with each other in the same manner and under the same regulations that are provided by law for white persons: Provided, That the clerk of probate shall keep separate records of the same.

village, from the member of the board of police of his beat, authorizing him or her to do irregular 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 the authority granting the same.

SEC. 6 provides that all contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, 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 held as entire contracts, and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expiration of his term of service without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to the time of quitting.

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 dollars, 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 mulatto, 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 per- | free negro or mulatto, for the shortest time to suade, or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause raise the amount necessary to discharge said any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to desert freedman, free negro or mulatto from all costs, from the legal employment of any person before fines, and jail fees aforesaid. the expiration of his or her term of service, or An Act to punish certain Offences therein named, shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or shall knowand for other purposes, November 29, 1865. ingly give or sell to any such deserting freed free negro, or mulatto, not in the military serSEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That no freedman, man, free negro, or mulatto any food, raiment, vice of the United States Government, and not or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a mis- licensed to do so by the board of police of his or demeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any two hundred dollars and the costs; and if said kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or bowie-knife; fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the and on conviction thereof, in the county court, court shall sentence said convict to not exceed shall be punished by fine, not exceeding ten doling 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 freedman, 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 any 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

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 confer Civil Rights upon Freedmen," and for other purposes, December 2, 1865.

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 and required, after giving ten days' public notice, to proceed to hire out at public outcry, at the court-house of the county, said freedman,

for trial in default of bail.
or ammunition, and cause him to be committed

the

latto, committing riots, routes, affrays, trespasses, SEC. 2. That any freedman, free negro, or mumalicious 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 regupeace, 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 hundred dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the discretion 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.

SEO. 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 public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs, and take such convict for the shortest time.

GEORGIA.

1865, December 15-Free persons of color are made competent witnesses in all courts in cases where a free person of color is a party, or the offence charged is against the person or property

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 -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:

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 property to support them, and who live by stealing 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.

March 8-The wilful and malicious burning of an occupied dwelling-house of another on a farm, or plantation, or elsewhere, shall be punished with death; also burglary in the night; also stealing a horse or mule, unless recommended by the jury to the mercy of the court.

"

&c.

March 17-County courts organized, as in other States, for hearing of cases arising out of the relation of master and servant,' 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 security 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.

December —Bill passed, “making it unlaw. ful for any freedmen, mulatto, or free person of 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 or 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.

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 person against a freedman, free negro, or mulatto, the parties shall be competent witnesses, and neither interest in the question or suit, nor marriage, shall disqualify any witness from testifying in open court.

1866, Febuary 16-A law was enacted, of

which section 1 provides that it shall not be lawful for any person to interfere with, hire, employ, or entice away, or induce to leave the service of another, any laborer or servant who shall have stipulated or contracted, in writing, to serve for any given number of days, weeks, or months, or for one year, so long as the said contract shall be and remain in force and binding upon the parties thereto, without the consent of the party employing or to whom said service is due and owing in writing, or in the presence of some veritable white person; and any person who shall knowingly interfere with, hire, employ, or entice away, or induce to leave the service aforesaid, without justifiable exquse therefor, before the expiration of said term of service so contracted and stipulated as aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, must be fined in such sum, not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, as the jury trying the same may assess, and in no case less than double the amount of the injury sustained by the party from whom such laborer or servant was induced to leave, one-half to go to the party injured and the other to the county as fines and forfeitures.

SEC. 2 provides that the party injured shall be a competent witness in all prosecutions under this act, notwithstanding his interest in the fine

to be assessed.

SEC. 3 provides that when any laborer or servant, having contracted as provided in the first section of this act, shall afterward be found, before the termination of said contract, in the service or employment of another, that fact shall be prima facie evidence that such person is guilty of violation of this act, if he fail and refuse to forthwith discharge the said laborer or servant, after being notified and informed of such former contract and employment.

A new penal code was adopted.

The material changes introduced by the new penal code are briefly these:

First. Whipping and branding are abolished, as legal punishments, and a new punishment is introduced, entitled "hard labor for the county." This "hard labor for the county" is put under the control of the court of county commissioners, who are authorized to employ a superintendent of the convicts, to make regulations for their government and labor, to put them to work on the public roads, bridges, &c., or to hire them out to railroad companies or private individuals.

Second. For all offences which were heretofore punishable by fine, or by fine and imprisonment, either in the county jail or in the penitentiary, the jury may still impose a fine; to which the court, in its discretion, may superadd imprisonment or hard labor, within specified limits in each case.

Third. The dividing line between grand and petit larceny, is raised from twenty to one hundred dollars; grand larceny being made a felony, that is, it may be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary; while petit larceny is only a misdemeanor, punishable by fine, or by fine and imprisonment in the county jail.

Fourth. A county court is established for the trial of misdemeanors.

Fifth. Justices of the peace have jurisdiction

of a few minor offences, such as vagrancy, larceny of less than ten dollars, and assaults, affrays, &c., in which no weapon is used. The proceedings before them conform substantially to proceedings before the county court.

The new code makes no distinction on account of color, only marriages between white persons and negroes are prohibited. It went into effect June 1, 1866.

The Governor vetoed three bills referring to persons of color. See page

SOUTH CAROLINA.

An Act Preliminary to the Legislation induced by the Emancipation of Slaves, October 19, 1865.

SECTION 3 provides that all free negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, all freed women, and all descendants through either sex of any of these persons, shall be known as persons of color, except that every such descendant who may have of Caucasian blood seven eighths, or more, shall be deemed a white person.

SEC. 4 provides that the statutes and regulations concerning slaves are now inapplicable to persons of color; and although such persons are not entitled to social or political equality with white persons, they shall have the right to acquire, own, and dispose of property, to make contracts, to enjoy the fruits of their labor, to sue and be sued, and to receive protection under the law in their persons and property.

SEC. 5 provides that all rights and remedies respecting persons or property, and all duties and liabilities under laws, civil and criminal, which apply to white persons, are extended to persons of color, subject to the modifications made by this act and the other acts hereinbefore mentioned.

An Act to Amend the Criminal Law, December 19, 1865.

SECTION 1 provides that either of the crimes specified in this first section shall be felony, without benefit of clergy, to wit: For a person of color to commit any wilful homicide, unless in self-defence; for a person of color to commit an assault upon a white woman, with manifest intent to ravish her; for a person of color to have sexual intercourse with a white woman by personating her husband; for any person to raise an insurrection or rebellion in this State; for any person to furnish arms or ammunition to other persons who are in a state of actual insurrection or rebellion, or permit them to resort to his house for advancement of their evil purpose; for any person to administer, or cause to be take by any other person, any poison, chloroform, soporific, or other destructive thing, or to shoot at, stab, cut, or wound any other person, or by any means whatsoever to cause bodily injury to any other person, whereby, in any of these cases, a bodily injury dangerous to the life of any other person is caused, with intent, in any of these cases, to commit the crime of murder, or the crime of rape, or the crime of robbery, burglary, or larceny: for any person who had been transported under sentence to return to this State within the period of prohibition contained in the sentence; o for

« AnteriorContinuar »