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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 An Act to punish certain Offences therein named, shall knowingly employ any such deserting and for other purposes, November 29, 1865. freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or shall knowSEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That no freedman, ingly give or sell to any such deserting freed free negro, or mulatto, not in the military ser 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 her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any less than twenty-five dollars and not more than two hundred dollars and the costs; and if said kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or bowie-knife and on conviction thereof, in the county court, fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the shall be punished by fine, not exceeding ten dolcourt shall sentence said convict to not exceed-lars, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and ing two months' imprisonment in the county all such arms or ammunition shall be forfeited to 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 for trial in default of bail. or ammunition, and cause him to be committed person on 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.

free negro or mulatto, for the shortest time to raise the amount necessary to discharge sai freedman, free negro or mulatto from all costs. 1 fines, and jail fees aforesaid.

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.

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latto, committing riots, routes, affrays, trespasses, SEC. 2. That any freedman, free negro, or mu 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 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 viction thereof, in the county court, be fined not specifically provided for by law, shall, upon conless than ten dollars, and not more than one hun dred 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 mu latto, 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 public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs, and take such convict for the 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 cases tice, to proceed to hire out at public outcry, at where a free person of color is a party, or the the court-house of the county, said freedman, offence charged is against the person or property

GEORGIA.

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of a free person of color. Persons of color now iving as husband and wife are declared to be so, except a man has two or more reputed wives, or wife two or more reputed husbands; in such event, they shall select one and the marriage eremony be performed.

1866, Feb. 23-All male inhabitants, white nd black, between sixteen and fifty, subject to work on the public roads, except such as are pecially exempted.

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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 March-Any officer knowingly issuing any collecting officer to make answer thereto. marriage license to parties, either of whom is of March 17-SEC. 1. That all negroes, mulatAfrican descent and the other a white person, toes, mestizoes, and their descendants having shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on convic-one eighth negro or African blood in their veins, ion be fined from two hundred to five hundred shall be known in this State as Hollars, or imprisoned for three months, or both. color." Any officer or minister marrying such persons hall 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:

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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 stealng 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.

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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 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 marished 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

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 excuse 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

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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 herein before 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; or for

person to steal a horse or mule, or cotton | within twenty days after his arrival within the acked in a bale ready for market. same, he shall enter into a bond, with two freeholders as sureties, to be approved by the judge of the district court or a magistrate, in a penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned for his good behavior, and for his support, if he should become unable to support himself.

SEC. 10 provides that a person of color who in the employment of a master engaged in usbandry shall not have the right to sell any orn, rice, peas, wheat, or other grain, any flour, otton, fodder, hay, bacon, fresh meat of any ind, poultry of any kind, animal of any kind, r any other product of a farm, without having ritten evidence from such master, or some peron authorized by him, or from the district judge ra magistrate, that he has the right to sell such roduct; and if any person shall, directly or directly, purchase any such product from such erson of color without such written evidence, he purchaser and seller shall each be guilty of misdemeanor.

SEC. 11 provides that it shall be a misdemeanor for any person not authorized to write or give to a person of color a writing which proesses to show evidence of the right of that peron of color to sell any product of a farm which, by the section last preceding, he is forbidden to ell without written evidence; and any person convicted of this misdemeanor shall be liable to he same extent as the purchaser in the section ast preceding is made liable; and it shall be a aisdemeanor for a person of color to exhibit as vidence of his right to sell any product a wriing which he knows to be false or counterfeited, r to have been written or given by any person ot authorized.

SEC. 13 states that persons of color constiute no part of the militia of the State, and no one of them shall, without permission in writing rom the district judge or magistrate, be allowed to keep a fire-arm, sword, or other military weapon, except that one of them, who is the owner of a farm, may keep a shot-gun or rifle, such as is ordinarily used in hunting, but not a pistol, musket, or other fire-arm or weapon appropriate for purposes of war. The district judge or a magistrate may give an order, under which any weapon unlawfully kept may be seized and sold, the proceeds of sale to go into the district court fund. The possession of a weapon in violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor which shall be tried before a district court or a magistrate, and in case of conviction, shall be punished by a fine equal to twice the value of the weapon so unlawfully kept, and if that be not immediately paid, by corporeal punishment.

SEC. 24 provides that when several persons of color are convicted of one capital offence, the jury which tries them may recommend one or more to mercy, for reasons which, in their opinion, mitigate the guilt; the district judge shall report the case, with his opinion, and the Governor shall do in the matter as seems to him meet. The same may be done when one only is convicted of capital offence. Before sentence of death shall be executed in any case, time for application to the Governor shall be allowed.

SEC. 27 provides that whenever, under any law, sentence imposing a fine is passed, if the fine and costs be not immediately paid, there shall be detention of the convict, and substitution of other punishment. If the offence should not involve the crimen falsi, and be infamous, the substitution shall be, in the case of a white person, imprisonment for a time proportioned to the fine, at the rate of one day for each dollar; and in the case of a person of color, enforced labor, without unnecessary pain or restraint, for a time proportioned to the fine, at the rate of one day for each dollar. But if the offence should be infamous, there shall be substituted for a fine, for imprisonment, or for both, hard labor, corporeal punishment, solitary confinement, and confinement in tread-mill or stocks, one or more, at the discretion of the judge of the superior court, the district judge, or the magistrate, who pronounces the sentence. In this act, and in respect to all crimes and misdemeanors, the term servants shall be understood to embrace an apprentice as well as a servant under contract.

SEC. 29 provides that, upon view of a misdemeanor committed by a person of color, or by a white person toward a person of color, a magistrate may arrest the offender, and, according to the nature of the case, punish the offender summarily, or bind him in recognizance with sufficient sureties to appear at the next monthly sitting of the district court, or commit him for trial before the district court.

SEC. 30 provides that, upon view of a misdemeanor committed by a person of color, any SEC. 14 provides that it shall not be lawful person present may arrest the offender and take for a person of color to be the owner, in whole him before a magistrate, to be dealt with as the or in part, of any distillery where spirituous case may require. In case of a misdemeanor liquors of any kind are made, or of any estab-committed by a white person toward a person lishment where spirituous liquors of any kind are sold by retail; nor for a person of color to be engaged in distilling any spirituous liquors, or in retailing the same in a shop or elsewhere. A person of color who shall do anything contrary to the prohibitions herein contained shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, may be punished by fine or corporeal punishment and hard labor, as to the district judge or magistrate before whom he may be tried shall seem meet.

SEC. 22 provides that no person of color shall migrate into and reside in this State, unless,

of color, any person may complain to a magistrate, who shall cause the offender to be ar ressted, and, according to the nature of the case, to be brought before himself, or be taken for trial in the district court.

An Act to establish District Courts, December

19, 1865.

Courts are established to have "exclusive ju risdiction, subject to appeal, of all civil causes where one or both the parties are persons of color, and of all criminal cases wherein the accused is a person of color, and also of all cases of misdemeanors affecting the person or property

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of a person of color, and of all cases of bas- | art or trade unless he shows that he has served an tardy, and of all cases of vagrancy, not tried apprenticeship in such trade or art, or is now before a magistrate." practicing such trade or art."

An indictment against a white person for the homicide of a person of color shall be tried in the superior court of law, and so shall other indictments in which a white person is accused of a capital felony affecting the person or property of a person of color.

In every case, civil and criminal, in which a person of color is a party, or which affects the person or property of a person of color, persons of color shall be competent witnesses. The accused, in such a criminal case, and the parties in every such civil case, may be witnesses, and so may every other person who is a competent witness; and in every such case, either party may offer testimony as to his own character, or that of his adversary or of the prosecutor, or of the third person mentioned in an indictment.

Former slaves, now helpless, who were on a farm Nov. 10, 1865 and six months previous shall not be evicted by the owner from the house oc cupied by them before January 1, 1867.

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It "provides that if the district court fund, after payment of the sums with which it is charged, on account of the salary of the judge of the district court, superintendent of convicts, jurors, and other expenses of the court and of convicts, shall be insufficient to support indigent persons of color, who may be proper charges on the public, the board aforesaid shall have power to impose for that purpose, whenever it may required, a tax of one dollar on each male person of color between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, and fifty cents on each unmarried female person of color between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, to be collected in each precinct by a magistrate thereof: Provided, That the said imposition of a tax shall be approved in writing by the judge of the district court, and that his approval shall appear in the journals of that court."

Order of General Sickles, disregarding the Code,
January 17, 1866.

1866, January 17-Major General Sickles issued this order:

December 21-" An act to establish and regulate the domestic relations of persons of color, and to amend the law in relation to paupers and vagrancy," establishes the relation of husband and wife, declares those now living as such to be husband and wife, and provides that persons of color desirous hereafter to marry shall have the contract duly solemnized. A parent may bind his child over two years of age as an apprentice to serve till 21 if a male, 18 if a female. All persons of color who make contracts HEADQ'RS DEP'T OF SOUTH CAROLINA, for service or labor shall be known as servants, January 17, 1866. and those with whom they contract as masters. [G. O., No. 1.-I. To the end that civil rights "Colored children between 18 and 21, who and immunities may be enjoyed; that kindly rehave neither father nor mother living in the dis-lations among the inhabitants of the State may trict in which they are found, or whose parents be established; that the rights and duties of the are paupers, or unable to afford them a com- employer and the free laborer respectively may fortable maintenance, or whose parents are not be defined; that the soil may be cultivated and teaching them habits of industry and honesty, the system of free labor undertaken; that the or are persons of notoriously bad character, or owners of estates may be secure in the possession are vagrants, or have been convicted of infamous of their lands and tenements; that persons able offences, and colored children, in all cases where and willing to work may have employment; they are in danger of moral contamination, may that idleness and vagrancy may be discountebe bound as apprentices by the district judge or nanced, and encouragement given to industry one of the magistrates for the aforesaid term." and thrift; and that humane provision may be It "provides that no person of color shall made for the aged, infirm and destitute, the folpursue or practice the art, trade, or business of lowing regulations are established for the gov an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper, or any ernment of all concerned in this department. other trade, employment, or business, (besides that of husbandry, or that of a servant under a contract for service or labor,) on his own account and for his own benefit, or in partnership with a white person, or as agent or servant of any person, until he shall have obtained a license therefor from the judge of the district court, which license shall be good for one year only. This license the judge may grant upon petition of the applicant, and upon being satisfied of his skill and fitness, and of his good moral character, and upon payment by the applicant to the clerk of the district court of one hundred dollars if a shopkeeper or pedlar, to be paid annually, and ten dollars if à mechanic, artisan, or to engage in any other trade, also to be paid annually: Provided, however, That upon complaint being made and proved to the district judge of an abuse of such license, he shall revoke the same: And provided, also, That no person of color shall practice any mechanical

II. All laws shall be applicable alike to all the inhabitants. No person shall be held incompetent to sue, make complaint, or to testify, because of color or caste.

III. All the employments of husbandry or the useful arts, and all lawful trades or callings, may be followed by all persons, irrespective of color or caste; nor shall any freedman be obliged to pay any tax or any fee for a license, nor be amenable to any municipal or parish ordinance, not imposed upon all other persons.

IV. The lawful industry of all persons who live under the protection of the United States, and owe obedience to its laws, being useful to the individual, and essential to the welfare of society, no person will be restrained from seeking employment when not bound by voluntary agreement, por hindered from traveling from place to place, on lawful business. All combinations or agreements which are intended to hinder, or may so operate as to hinder, in any

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