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Black Codes of Mississippi
1865
An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other Purposes
Section 1. 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 chooses 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 cities or towns,
in which places the corporate authorities shall control the same.
Section 2. 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.
Section 3. All freedmen, free negroes or mullatoes who do now and have
herebefore lived and cohabited together as husband 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; and it shall not be lawful for any freedman,
free negro or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any
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 in each generation may have been a white
person.
Section 4. In addition to cases in which freedmen, free negroes and
mulattoes are now by law competent witnesses, freedmen, free negroes or
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 is or are either plaintiff or
plaintiffs, defendant or defendants. They shall also be competent witnesses
in all criminal prosecutions where the crime charged is alleged to have been
committed by a white person upon or against the person or property of a
freedman, free negro or mulatto: Provided, that in all cases said witnesses
shall be examined in open court, on the stand; except, however, they may be
examined before the grand jury, and shall in all cases be subject to the
rules and tests of the common law as to competency and credibility.
Section 5. Every freedman, free negro and mulatto shall, on the second
Monday of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and annually
thereafter, have a lawful home or employment, and shall have written
evidence thereof as follows, to wit: if living in any incorporated city,
town, or village, a license from that mayor thereof; and if living outside
of an incorporated city, town, or 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 6 in this act; which license may
be revoked for cause at any time by the authority granting the same.
Section 6. All contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes and
mulattoes for a longer period than one month shall be in writing, and a
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 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.
Section 7. Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry
back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free negro, or mulatto who
shall have quit the service 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
employee 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 employee: Provided, that said arrested party, after being so
returned, may appeal to the justice of the peace or member of the board of
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.
Section 8. Upon affidavit made by the employer of any freedman, free negro
or mulatto, or other credible person, before any justice of the peace or
member of the board of police, that any freedman, free negro or mulatto
legally employed by said employer has illegally deserted said employment,
such justice of the peace or member of the board of police issue his warrant
or warrants, returnable before himself or other such officer, to any
sheriff, constable or special deputy, commanding him to arrest said
deserter, and return him or her to said employer, and the like proceedings
shall be had as provided in the preceding section; and it shall be lawful
for any officer to whom such warrant shall be directed to execute said
warrant in any county in this State; and that said warrant may be
transmitted without endorsement to any like officer of another county, to be
executed and returned as aforesaid; and the said employer shall pay the
costs of said warrants and arrest and return, which shall be set off for so
much against the wages of said deserter.
Section 9. 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 mullato, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman,
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 costs; and if
the said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall
sentence said convict to not exceeding two months imprisonment in the county
jail, and he or she shall moreover be liable to the party injured in
damages: Provided, if any person shall, or shall attempt to, persuade,
entice, or cause any freedman, free negro or mullatto to desert from any
legal employment of any person, with the view to employ said freedman, free
negro or mullato without the limits of this State, such 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.
Section 10. 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 offense 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 equity in this State,
to make all needful and lawful affidavits as shall be necessary for the
institution, prosecution or defense of such suit or controversy.
Section 11. The penal laws of this state, in all cases not otherwise specially provided for, shall apply and extend to all freedman, free negroes and mulattoes...
An Act to Regulate the Relation of Master and Apprentice, as Relates to
Freedmen, Free Negroes, and Mulattoes
Section 1. 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 semiannually, at the January and
July terms of said courts, all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under
the age of eighteen, in 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 minor: 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.
Section 2. The said court shall be fully satisfied that the person or
persons to whom said minor shall be apprenticed shall be a suitable person
to have the charge and care of said minor, and fully to protect the interest
of said minor. The said court shall require the said master or mistress to
execute bond and security, payable to the State of Mississippi, conditioned
that he or she shall furnish said minor with sufficient food and clothing;
to treat said minor humanely; furnish medical attention in case of sickness;
teach, or cause to be taught, him or her to read and write, if under fifteen
years old, and will conform to any law that may be hereafter passed for the
regulation of the duties and relation of master and apprentice: Provided,
that said apprentice shall 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.
Section 3. In the management and control of said apprentices, said master or
mistress shall have the power to inflict such moderate coporeal chastisement
as a father or guardian is allowed to infliction on his or her child or ward
at common law: Provided, that in no case shall cruel or inhuman punishment
be inflicted.
Section 4. If any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master
or mistress, without his or her consent, said master 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, to the
next term of the county court; and it shall be the duty of said court at the
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 the
service of 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, from the use and benefit of said apprentice, to be
collected on execution as in other cases.
Section 5. 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 spirits without such
consent, said person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and
shall, upon conviction there of before the county court, be punished as
provided for the punishment of person enticing from their employer hired
freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes.
Section 6. It shall be the duty of all civil officers of their respective
counties to report any minors within their respective counties to said
probate court who are subject to be apprenticed under the provisions of this
act, from time to time as the facts may come to their knowledge, and it
shall be the duty of said court from time to time as said minors shall be
reported to them, or otherwise come to their knowledge, to apprentice said
minors as hereinbefore provided.
Section 9. It shall be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto,
having a minor child or children, as provided for by this act.
Section 10. 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....
An Act to Amend the Vagrant Laws of the State
Section 1. All rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars,
jugglers, or persons practicing unlawful games or plays, runaways, common
drunkards, common night-walkers, pilferers, lewd, wanton, or lascivious
persons, in speech or behavior, common railers and brawlers, persons who
neglect their calling or employment, misspend what they earn, or do not
provide for the support of themselves or their families, or dependents, and
all other idle and disorderly persons, including all who neglect all lawful
business, habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame,
gaming-houses, or tippling shops, shall be deemed and considered vagrants,
under the provisions of this act, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined
not exceeding one hundred dollars, with all accruing costs, and be
imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding ten days.
Section 2. 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 unlawful
assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all
white persons assembling themselves 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 freed
woman, freed negro or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction
thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding, in the case of a freedman,
free negro or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white man two hundred dollars,
and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, the free negro not
exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.
Section 3. All justices of the peace, mayors, and aldermen of incorporated
towns, counties, and cities of the several counties in this State shall have
jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy in their respective towns,
counties, and cities, and it is hereby made their duty, whenever they shall
ascertain that any person or persons in their respective towns, and counties
and cities are violating any of the provisions of this act, to have said
party or parties arrested, and brought before them, and immediately
investigate said charge, and, on conviction, punish said party or parties,
as provided for herein. And it is hereby made the duty of all sheriffs,
constables, town constables, and all such like officers, and city marshals,
to report to some officer having jurisdiction all violations of any of the
provisions of this act, and in case any officer shall fail or neglect any
duty herein it shall be the duty of the county court to fine said officer,
upon conviction, not exceeding one hundred dollars, to be paid into the
county treasury for county purposes.
Section 4. Keepers of gaming houses, houses of prostitution, prostitutes,
public or private, and all persons who derive their chief support in the
employment's that militate against good morals, or against law, shall be
deemed and held to be vagrants.
Section 5. All fines and forfeitures collected by the provisions of this act
shall be paid into the county treasury of general county purposes, and in
case of any freedman, free negro or mulatto shall fail for five days after
the imposition of any 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 and 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
freedman, free negro or mulatto cannot hire out, he or she may be dealt with
as a pauper.
Section 6. The same duties and liabilities existing among white persons of
this State shall attach to freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes, to support
their indigent families and all colored paupers; and that in order to secure
a support for such indigent freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes, it shall
be lawful, and is hereby made the duty of the 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 Freedman'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 county police in the
respective counties of this State.
Section 7. 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 facie evidence of vagrancy, and it shall be the duty
of the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or such
person refusing or neglecting to pay such tax, and proceed at once to hire
for the shortest time such delinquent taxpayer to any one who will pay the
said tax, with accruing costs, giving preference to the employer, if there be one.
Section 8. Any person feeling himself or herself aggrieved by judgment of
any justice of the peace, mayor, or alderman in cases arising under this
act, may within five days appeal to the next term of the county court of the
proper county, upon giving bond and security in a sum not less than
twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred and fifty dollars, conditioned
to appear and prosecute said appeal, and abide by the judgment of the county
court; and said appeal shall be tried de novo in the county court, and the
decision of the said court shall be final.
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