Such were the conditions and dangers with which the Johnson government had to deal as it best could. It was believed by northern statesmen that the situation would be mastered by enfranchising the negroes and investing them with a citizenship exactly equal to that of white persons.[30] The Georgia constitution of 1865 made it clear that the Georgia law-makers were not disciples of that school. That constitution confined the electoral franchise to “free white male citizens.”[31] It ordered the legislature at its first session “to provide by law for the government of free persons of color,” for “guarding them and the state against any evil that may arise from their sudden emancipation,” and “for the regulation of their transactions with citizens;” also “to create county courts with jurisdiction in criminal cases excepted from the exclusive jurisdiction of the Superior [county] Court, and in civil cases whereto free persons of color may be parties,” and to make rules “prescribing in what cases their testimony shall be admitted in the courts.”[32]
The legislation enacted in 1866 in the interest of the public peace and order consisted of—
1. An apprentice law. By this it was made the duty of the judges of the county courts to bind out minors whose parents were dead or unable to support them as apprentices until the age of twenty-one. A master receiving an apprentice under this law was to teach him a trade, furnish him food, clothes, and medicine, teach him habits of industry, honesty, and morality, teach him to read the English language, and govern him with humanity. On default of any of these requirements a master was to be fined. The judge having charge of this law might, on application from an apprentice or an apprentice’s friend, dissolve the contract on account of cruelty on the part of the master. An apprentice at the end of his term was entitled to an allowance from the master “with which to begin life.” The amount was left to the master’s generosity, but if he offered less than $100 the apprentice might complain to the court, which should then fix the amount.[33]
2. A vagrancy law. Vagrancy was defined in the usual language of our criminal codes. The penalty was heavier than these usually provide, because the need of suppressing the vice was more urgent than usual. A vagrant might be fined or imprisoned at the discretion of the court, or sentenced to labor on the public works for not more than one year; or he might, at the discretion of the court “be bound out to some person for a time not more than one year, upon such valuable consideration as the court may prescribe.”[34]
3. Alterations in the penal laws. These alterations were of two contrasting kinds. The penalty for burglary in the night, arson, horse stealing and rape was changed from long imprisonment[35] to death,[36] which, however, might be in every case commuted to life imprisonment.[37] On the other hand, several hundred crimes, including all the species of larceny except that mentioned above, were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors, and the penalties from imprisonment in the penitentiary to fine, imprisonment in the county jail, or whipping, at the discretion of the court.[38] This mitigation of punishment was made in consideration of the negroes’ ignorance of the nature of their offences, due to the fact that these had before been punished by their masters and not by the law. Probably the capacity of the penitentiary was also considered.
To facilitate the transition from the old labor system to the new by remedying in some degree the instability of the labor supply, the legislature made it a crime to employ any servant during the term for which he had contracted to work for another, or to induce a servant to quit the service of an employer before the close of the period contracted for.[39]
Regarding the civil rights and relations of the negroes the following legislation was passed:
1. A law in these words:
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 subject to any other or different punishment, pain or penalty for the commission of any act or offence than such as are prescribed for white persons committing like acts or offences.[40]
2. A provision, implied in the law above quoted, that negroes were to be held competent witnesses in all courts in cases, civil or criminal, whereto persons of color should be parties.[41]