ntice runs away, he is to be apprehended and
returned, or, if he refuses to return, to be confined or put under bonds
till the next term of the court, which shall then decide as to the cause
of his desertion, and if it appears groundless compel his return, or if
he has been ill-treated fine the master not more than $100 for the
benefit of his apprentice. This statute seems not oppressive but
beneficent.

The law of vagrancy provided that all freedmen having no lawful
employment or business, or who are found unlawfully assembling, and all
white persons so assembling in company with freedmen, or "usually
associating with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes, on terms of
equality," are to be deemed vagrants, and fined, a white man not more
than $200, a negro not more than $50, and imprisoned, a white man not
more than six months, a negro not more than ten days. If the negro does
not pay his fine within five days, he is to be hired out by the sheriff
to the person who will pay his fine and costs for the shortest term of
service. The same treatment is to be applied to any negro who fails to
pay his tax. This statute meant legal servitude for any negro not
finding employment, and the same penalty for a white man who merely
consorted with negroes on equal terms.

The law of civil rights provided that all negroes are to have the same
rights with whites as to personal property, as to suing and being sued,
but they must not rent or lease lands or tenements except in
incorporated towns and cities, and under the control of the corporate
authorities. Provision is made for the intermarriage of negroes, and the
legalization of previous connections; but intermarriage between whites
and negroes is to be punished with imprisonment for life. Negroes may be
witnesses in all civil cases in which negroes are parties, and in
criminal cases where the alleged crime is by a white person against a
negro. Every negro shall have a lawful home and employment, and hold
either a public license to do job-work or a written contract for labor.
If a laborer quits his employment before the time specified in the
contract, he is to forfeit his wages for the year up to the time of
quitting. Any one enticing a laborer to desert his work, or selling or
giving food or raiment or any other thing knowingly to a deserter from
contract labor, may be punished by fine or imprisonment. No negro is to
carry arms without a public license. Any negro guilty of riot, affra