hnson, emphasized the fact that the whites of England and the United
States gained civil and political rights through centuries of slow
advancement and that they were far ahead of the people of European
states. Consequently, it would be a mistake to give the freedmen a
status equal to that of the most advanced whites. Rather, let the United
States profit by the experience of the British in their emancipation
policies and arrange a system of apprenticeship for a period of
transition. When the Negro should be fit, let him be advanced to
citizenship.

Most Southern leaders agreed that the removal of the master's protection
was a real loss to the Negro which must be made good to some extent by
giving the Negro a status in court and by accepting Negro testimony in
all cases in which blacks were concerned. The North Carolina committee
on laws for freedmen agreed with objectors that "there are comparatively
few of the slaves lately freed who are honest" and truthful, but
maintained that the Negroes were capable of improvement. The chief
executives of Mississippi and Florida declared that there was no danger
to the whites in admitting the more or less unreliable Negro testimony,
for the courts and juries would in every case arrive at a proper
valuation of it. Governors Marvin of Florida and Humphreys of
Mississippi advocated practical civil equality, while in North Carolina
and several other States there was a disposition to admit Negro
testimony only in cases in which Negroes were concerned. The North
Carolina committee recommended the abolition of whipping as a punishment
unfit for free people, and most States accepted this principle. Even in
1865, the general disposition was to make uniform laws for both races,
except in regard to violation of contracts, immoral conduct, vagrancy,
marriage, schools, and forms of punishment. In some of these matters the
whites were to be more strictly regulated; in others, the Negroes.

There was further general agreement that in economic relations both
races must be protected, each from the other; but it is plain that the
leaders believed that the Negro had less at stake than the white. The
Negro was disposed to be indolent; he knew little of the obligations
of contracts; he was not honest; and he would leave his job at will.
Consequently Memminger recommended apprenticeship for all Negroes;
Governor Marvin suggested it for children alone; and others wished it
provided for orphans only. Fur