This sketch of the “Black Laws” of some of the free States, incomplete as it is, is sufficient to show how those States regarded free Negroes. First, they tried to keep Negroes out; and, secondly, they subjected those that remained to various disabilities. When the first Civil Rights Bill was before Congress, the strongest opposition to its passage was on the ground that it would compel the free States to repeal these “Black Laws” and allow Negroes to intermarry with whites, attend the same schools, sit on juries, vote, bear firearms,[[70]] etc. The free Negro constituted a distinct class between the slave and the master, his condition being more nearly that of a slave.
The Southern States had been afraid of the free Negro. He was a sort of irresponsible being, neither bond nor free, who was likely to spread and foster discontent among the slaves. When a slave was emancipated, it was desired that he leave the State forthwith. Thus, the Virginia Constitution[[71]] of 1850 provided that emancipated slaves who remained in the Commonwealth more than twelve months after they became actually free, should forfeit their freedom and be reduced to slavery under such regulations as the law might prescribe. The free Negro was truly between the devil and the deep sea. If he stayed in the State, he would be reënslaved; if he went to a free State, he would be liable to prosecution there for violating the laws against the immigration of free persons of color.
As one turns to the first laws passed by the Southern States after Emancipation, he should keep in mind that these States were only grappling with the old problem of the free Negro, now on a much larger scale, which problem the free States had disposed of already in the manner just seen. As yet, the Southern States had no conception of the Negro as a citizen with inalienable rights to be recognized and protected. For instance, the Constitution of Mississippi[[72]] of 1832, as amended August 1, 1865, abolished slavery and empowered the legislature to make laws for the protection and security of the persons and property of freedmen, and to guard “them and the State against any evils that may arise from their sudden emancipation.” And the laws of South Carolina,[[73]] of the same year, provided that, “although such persons [Negroes] are not entitled to social or political equality with white persons,” they might hold property, make contracts, etc. except as hereinafter modified.
RESTRICTIONS UPON MOVEMENT OF NEGROES
After 1865 there was comparatively little legislation as to the movement of Negroes from one State to another. It would have been utterly impossible to control the migration of the 4,000,000 Negroes then in the United States. In States where the free Negroes were numbered by only hundreds or even thousands, the entrance or exit of one was a noticeable event. Where, however, Negroes were in the majority, a hundred might have come or gone at once without being noticed. The Constitution of Georgia[[74]] of 1865 empowered the general assembly to make laws for the regulation or prohibition of the immigration of free persons of color into that State from other places; but the legislature seems not to have used this power.
Two years earlier, in 1863, the legislature of Kentucky[[75]] had declared that it was unlawful for any Negro or mulatto claiming to be free under the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, or under any other proclamation by the Government of the United States, to migrate to or remain in the State. Any Negro violating this law was treated as a runaway slave.
A law of South Carolina,[[76]] of 1865, provided that no person of color should migrate to or reside in the State unless, within twenty days after his arrival, he entered into a bond with two freeholders as sureties in a penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned on his good behavior and for his support if he should become unable to support himself. If he should fail to execute the required bond, he had to leave the State within ten days, or be liable to corporal punishment. If, after being so punished, he should still remain in the State fifteen days longer, he was to be transported beyond the limits of the State for life “or kept at hard labor, with occasional solitary confinement, for a period not exceeding five years.” The same punishment of banishment for life, or confinement and hard labor for a term was prescribed for any person of color coming or being brought into South Carolina after having been convicted of an infamous crime in another State.
That the Southern States believed that the day of the Negro as a laborer was over was evidenced, not only by their efforts to keep Negroes out of the State, but also by the fact that so many of them, during the first years after the War, passed statutes encouraging and offering inducements to foreign immigrants. The movement to bring foreigners into the South is still going on, but it has never met with much success.
Although to-day many places, both in the North and in the South, do not permit Negroes to reside within their borders or even to stay over night, the above are apparently the last instances where attempts to limit the movement of Negroes[[77]] have been made by State legislatures. Most of the States have concluded to allow Negroes to come and go at will, but to fix their status while in the State.