Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-10-25

sEAVERY REDTYTRUS
The system Of American slavery is
dead but its spirit is not dead. It still
roams over the continent seeking whom
it may devour. Thousands of South
ern recusants fondly cherish the hope
that its corporeaI existence VIII again
be established in some form Of peon-
age or serfdonn.
The evidences Of this were manifest
ed directly after the war closed, in the
enactment Of apprentice and Yagrant
laws which practically reduced the
blacks to a condition Of servitude. The
code enacted in South Carolina that Q
person of color f'in the employment of
a MASTER should sell no farm product
without the written consent Of such
master :" that no person of color
should be permitted to keep fire arms
except he be the owner of a farm that
no person of color should come within
the State unless within twenty days af-
ter his arrival he should give proper Sc
curity for his support in case he should
if a person Of color should be punish
ed for any ofIense by fine, which he
would be unable to pay, a penalty Of
''enforced labor might be substituted /;
that parent may bind his child, over
two years of age, as an apprentice un-
til, if male, 2l, if female Is years ofags,
and that all persons of color who make
contracts for service CT. labor shall be
known as Servants and those with
whom they. contract as masters - that
cOlored children having neither father
nor mother aUi'0 IN the district a1beTs
they are Joaszd, or whose parents are un-
able to furnish them q comfortable aadIga-
tenauce, Or 9ghose parents are not teaching
them habits Of Industry dad honesty, or
are vagrants, or are persons of bad
character, or have been convicted of an
infamous crime, and colorsd children,
in all cases where they are in danger Of
moral contamination, may be bound as
apprentices by the district judge or one
of the magistrates for the aforesaid
term and finally that no person Of
color should practice any art or trade
requiring special skill without paying
an oppressive fee for a aIicense. In F1ori-
da the vagrant act authorized the ar
rest of every person of color found un-
employed and that he or she be bound
s'in sufficient security for good behay-
ior and future industry for one year. If
such person failed to give such security
he or she might be put on trial and if
found guilty. sentenced to labor and
hired out by the sheriff for the term of
the sentence. Another law of the same
state provided that if any person Of
coIor entered into a contract to serve as
a Iaborer for one year, and should disc
hey the orders Of his. employer or show
him dalplsdeuce or -olisrsspecE such labor
er would be liable to the penalties for
Yagraney.
The Johnson provisional governments
enacted similar laws in North Carolina,
Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Virgin
ia, Texas and Louisiana. it is not diff
ficult to discover. in these oppressive en-
actments the whole machinery of sla-
very. The whites were at liberty to
employ or not to employ the negroes.
But the latter if found unemployed
might by. arrested as yagrants and pun
ished by imprisonment, whipping, or
''enforced 1abor'' for the period of twelve
months. a black who had entered in
to a contract of labor might be punish
e i as a ''vagrant, y that is by enforced
labor for. constructive impudence to
his master" Any one punished for
an t'infamOus crime" should be depriv-
ed Of the elective franchise, and vagran-
cy was declared an "infamous crime. -
Under this enaetment it was attempted
to disfranchise thousands OF black men
who might otherwise have been eapa-
BILE voters. Until General SickIes stop
ped it ''vagrants" were whipped by
hundreds with view to disqualifying
them for future use of the ballot.
1t will be observed that by another
feature of these laws all black children
over two years of age might be appren-
ticed until eighteen or twenty-one years
Of age, provided. their parents did not
reside in the same district, or were pau
pers, or unable to afford them a 'com-
Portable maintenance, y or whose pa
rents were not teaching them habits Of
industry and honesty" or had been
convicted of ''vagrancy," and '''oolored
children in all cases where they are in
! danger of moral contamination" This
is simply infamous, and was designed
to enslave all negroes under age. But
we have not given the worst features Of
this law they were fully developed in
| a recent case which arose under SINH
lar code in Maryland. The case came
up on the petition of Elizabeth Turner,
/ a co1ored girl, and was decided a few
days since in Baltimore by Chief Just
ice Chase. When slavery ceased in
Maryland, very many negro children
were at once apprenticed to their for
mer masters, under the plea that their
parents could not support them. Eliza
beth Turner's case shows that the slave
holders did not lose any time in such
matters. Slavery ceased in Maryland
on the 1st Of November, and on the. Sd,
two days afterwards, Elizabeth was
.r