masters were given the right to give the servants tasks. If the servant complained of the task the district judge or a magistrate might reduce or increase it.

"Visitors could not be invited or allowed by the servants to come on the premises of the master without his express consent, nor could servants be absent from the premises. without such permission."

Apprentice Laws of 1865-1868 and

their Application to Freedmen

Between 1865 and 1868, the Legislatures of the South made detailed apprentice laws. Although many of. the statutes make no mention of race, they had in mind, primarily, Negroes. In some instances, however, it was specifically stated that the application was to them. The Alabama statute said that "if the minor be a child of a freedman, the former owner of the child should have the preference of apprenticing him, if a suitable person.

In Kentucky, if the apprentice was white, the master must teach him reading, writing, and common arithmetic up to and including the "Rule of Three"; if a Negro, the master must pay at the end of the apprenticeship fifty dollars to a girl and one hundred dollars to a boy, but if the master should teach the apprentice to read and write, he was not bound to pay any money. In Kentucky, also, in apprenticing Negroes, preference was given to their former owners, "if the latter were suitable persons."

Mississippi and South Carolina had apprentice laws which related only to freedmen, free Negroes and mulattoes.

Under the Mississippi law "The Sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the county had to report to the probate court semiannually, in January and July, the names of all freedmen, free Negroes and mulattoes, under the age of eighteen, who were orphans or whose parents were unable or unwilling to support them. It was the duty of the court to order the apprenticing of such minors, preference being given to their former masters if suitable persons. The master had to furnish a bond payable to the State, conditioned upon his furnishing the minor with sufficient food and clothing, treating him humanely, giving him medical attention when sick, and, if the minor was under fifteen, teaching him or having him taught to read and write. Males were bound till they were twenty-one; females, till they were eighteen.

If the apprentice ran away the master might pursue him and bring him before a justice of the peace who could remand him to the service of his master. If the apprentice refused to return, he might be put into jail until the next term of the court, when his case would be investigated. If it was found that he had left without cause,

he could be punished like a hired freedman; but if he had a good
cause, the court might discharge him and enter judgment against
his master for not over one hundred dollars to be paid to the ap-
prentice."

The constitutionality of these apprentice laws was tested in
1867. A Negro girl who had been a slave in Maryland and had
been freed by the Constitution of that State November 1, 1864, was
two days later, apprenticed by her mother to her former master.
The laws governing Negro apprentices differed from those gov-
erning white apprentices in that the master did not obligate him-
self to teach the Negro apprentice reading, writing, and arithme-
tic, and retained the right to transmit the apprentice anywhere in
the county. Upon a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, the Fed-
eral Court held that the Maryland law resulted in practical slavery,
and, hence, violated the Thirteenth Amendment and the Civil
Rights Bill of 1866."

REFERENCES.-Stephenson-Race Distinctions in American Law, pp. 53-58.

Vagrancy Laws with Special Refer

ence to the Freedmen

The present vagrancy laws of the South, so far as their wording is concerned, apply to both races equally. In the first years after the Civil War, vagrancy laws were enacted which had special application to Negroes. The South Carolina Legislature included in the Act to establish and regulate the domestic relations of persons of color and to amend the laws in relation to paupers and vagrancy, the following list of persons who were to be classed as vagrants:

"All persons who have not some fixed and known place of abode, and some lawful and reputable employment; those who have not some visible and known means of a fair, honest and reputable livelihood; all common prostitutes, those who are found wandering from place to place, vending, bartering, or peddling any articles or commodities without a license; all common gamblers; persons who lead idle or disorderly lives, or keep or frequent disorderly or disreputable houses or places; those who, not having sufficient means of support, are able to work and do not work; those who (whether or not they own lands, or are lessees or mechanics) do not provide a reasonable and proper maintenance for themselves and families; those who are engaged in representing publicly or privately, for fee or reward, without license, any tragedy, interlude, comedy, farce, play, or other similar entertainment, exhibition of the circus, sleight-ofhand, wax works; those who for a private gain, without license, give any concert or musical entertainment, of any description; fortune tellers; sturdy beggars; common drunkards; those who hunt game of any description, or fish on the land of others or frequent the premises, contrary to the will of the occupant."

The Mississippi Vagrancy list was almost as exten ve as that of

South Carolina, with the addition, "that any freedmen, free Negroes,
or mulattoes over eighteen years of age, found on the second Mon-
day of January, 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or
business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together in the
day or night time, and white persons so assembling with freedmer,
free Negroes or mulattoes 'on terms of equality, or living
in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mu-
latto,' should be considered vagrants."

.

REFERENCES.-Stephenson-Race Distinctions in American Law, pp. 58-60.

Pauper Laws Made Each Race Liable

to Support Its Own Paupers

The close of the war found the South facing the problem of how to meet the needs of the paupers, white and Negro. A large part of the property of the whites had been swept away or had been greatly depreciated in value. The Negroes, with a few exceptions, had no property to lose. They lost their right to look up to the white people for sustenance. The Legislatures of the South adopted the plan of levying a tax upon each race for the support of its own indigents.

"In South Carolina when a person of color was unable to earn his support and was likely to become a public charge, the father and grandfathers, mother and grandmothers, child and grandchildren brother and sister of such a person should each according to ability contribute for the support of his or her relative. In each judicial district there was a 'Board of Relief of Indigent Persons of Color,' consisting of from four to eight magistrates, each magistrate looking after the indigent Negroes in his precinct. There was a fund composed of fees paid for the approval of contracts for service, instruments of apprenticeship, licenses, fines, penalties, forfeitures, and wages of convicts, for the relief of indigent Negroes. If this fund was insufficient, the board might impose a tax of one dollar upon all male persons of color between eighteen and fifty, and fifty cents upon each female between eighteen and forty-five. This tax had to be paid on the day fixed or the person rendered himself liable to pay a double tax."

The law of Mississippi provided that the same liabilities should rest on Negroes to support their indigents as upon white persons to support theirs. It levied a tax of one dollar upon every freedman, free Negro, or mulatto between eighteen and sixty, to go into the Freedmen's Pauper Fund. If a Negro refused to pay the tax, he might be arrested and hired out till he had worked out the amount. REFERENCES.-Stephenson-Race Distinctions in American Law, pp. 60 63.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Constitutional Amendments

The Thirteenth Amendment adopted December 18, 1865, made slavery in the United States unconstitutional. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments conferred upon the descendents of the slaves and upon the descendents of the Free Negroes, the constitutional rights which had been denied them under the so-called "Black Laws," passed by the different States. Under the Amendments conferring upon Negroes all the fundamental rights of white men, race distinctions were not abolished but race discriminations were made illegal.

"It is important, at the outset to distinguish clearly between race distinctions and race discriminations; more so, because these words are often used synonymously, especially when the Negro is discussed. A distinction between the Caucasian and the Negro, when recognized and enforced by the law, has been interpreted as a discrimination against the latter. In fact, there is an essential difference between race distinctions and race discriminations. North Carolina, for example, has a law that white and Negro children shall not attend the same schools, but that separate schools shall be maintained. If the terms of all the public schools in the State are equal in length, if the teaching force is equal in numbers and ability, if the school buildings are equal in convenience, accomodations and appointments, a race distinction exists but not a discrimination.

"There is no discrimination so long as there is equality of opportunity, and this equality may often be attained only by a difference in methods. On the other hand, if the term of the Negro School is four months, and that of the white, eight; if the teachers in the Negro schools are underpaid and inadequately or wrongly trained, and the teachers of the white schools are well paid and well trained; if Negro children are housed in dilapidated, uncomfortable, and unsanitary buildings, and white children have new, comfortable, and sanitary buildings; if courses of study for Negro children are selected in a haphazard fashion without any regard to their peculiar needs, and a cirriculum is carefully adapted to the needs of white children; if such conditions exist under the law, race distinctions exist which are at the same time discriminations against Negroes. A race distinction connotes a difference and nothing more. A discrimination necessarily implies partiality and favoritism."

REFERENCES.-Stephenson-Race Distinctions in American' aw, pp. 2-4.

14th AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION
Ratified July 28, 1868

Sec. 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the

jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States,and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the priv
ileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protecton of the laws.

Sec. 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportions which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Sec. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress or Elector
of President and Vice President or hold any office, civil or military, under the
United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a
member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States or as a member of any
State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the
Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress
may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Sec. 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law,
including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in sup-
pressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United
States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of
insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held
illegal and void.

Sec. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article.

15th AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION

(Ratified March 30, 1870)

Sec. 1.
The right if the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be de-
nied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legisla
tion.

FEDERAL LEGISLATION

The First Civil Rights Bill was passed by Congress April 9, 1866. It prescribed that "all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime

shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings in the security of persons and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment and penalties, and to none other."