Year: 1865

ING SLAVERY.


We have received copy of the new Slave
Code of South Carolina. A Commission was
appointed at the request of the late Ccnvch'
tion, by the Provisional Governor, to prepare
code for the regulation of labor and
the protection and government OF the
colorcd population of the State IL Is
their report which lies before us and
which ia introduced, We age informed, into
the Legislature as Bill, shortly to become a
Law. Messrs. ID. L. Wardlaw and Armistead
Burt compose the Commission and put their
names to the report. We do not doubt they
have done the work they were expected and
desired to do, and that their code is such
a one as will in substance be ell
acted into statutes by the Legislature. 1t
is of a character to suit the Southern temper,
but as ii is not in all respects of a character to
suit the Northern temper, we must admonlsh
Messrs. wardlaw and Burt and their master,
Mr. Perry, that the publication Of it before
South Carolina is altogether reconstructed,
seems little premature. The strongest argu-
ment against reorganization with no other
guaranty for the future than the Constitutional
Amendment, il that the freedom secured by 1t
is only nominal. This code supplies abundant
illustrations of the perils still impending over
both the negro and the Union, under State
Governments which shall be at liberty
to disregard everything but the tech
nical requirements Of the amended Constitution.
Nor does South Carolina mean 10 respect
even those technical obligations The amend
mcnt enacts that there shall be no involuntary
servitude except for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted The code inn
poses at least three distinct forms of Slavery IN
direct violation Of the amendment, and in sub
stantial conformity with the old law Of the
State.
II il enacted that "a husband who abandons
his wife, or fails to maintain his wife and
District Judge from year to year, and the
profits Of his service applied TO their main
tcnancc. What bound to service" means will
appear shortly. In the second place comes the
apprenticeship system, with this very remarka-
BILE and sweeping provision, viz:


"Colored children between the ages mentioned f.
and ~ who have neither father mother rirs In


f Dsriof IN tAi6h nfy josNd whose parent are
pauper,. unable to AFFORD them comfortable main


ehancc. rA1ss partafs not fodcAH4 n kabEs o'
Indnsry and hoHov persons Of no,oriously bat
character or vRgranis or have been convicted Of
Infamous ofenser and colored children in all cds,'
rAt,e hey ~ danger of zorai ooaamincOr may BE-
bound o. apprentices by the District Judge Of
tie magistrates Tor the aforesaid term"
Under that section there is no colored minor


in the State who il safe for one moment from
compulsory apprentices hip-itself only form
OF Slavery, and in this code surrounded with
almost every incident Of Slavery.


The third means by which the same end is
reached IL through u yagrant act. A long
list ID given in that act of persons who shall
be deemed yagrants in law, including all
persons who have not some fixed and known
place Of abode and some lawful and rcputa-
bic employment; all peddlcrs without license;
all disordcrly persons; all suspicious" per-
sons, and many other descriptions. As
in the case of apprenticeship, the


language OF the statute is designcdly
broad enough and loose enough to include
almost every colored person in the state. Who
shall say that in the eye of South Carolina law
any black man is not suspicious :" Being
suspicious, he may be arrested, tried by two
white judges sentenced to hard labor, and
hired by the magistrate to any owner or lessee
Of farm, or sent to hard labor OH streets, pub
lie roads, or public buildings.


Here we have, thon three modes at least by
which the law imposes unremunerated COM
pulsory labor on black men whom the Constitu-
ton Of the United States emancipatcs. For
every ore of these cases the most significant
symbol of Slavery and its most degrading instru.
ment IL authorized to be employed South
Carolina does not believe in q Slavery
without the lash; SO she provides that
the apprentice and the laborer bound to service
by his own contract, and the vagrant or other
offender bound to service against his own will
may BIZ whipped. In the case Of the apprentice
the law gives the master authority "to mnct
moderate u chastsemcnt, and impose reason
able restraint, and to recapturo him if he de-
part from his service" In the case of a free
labOrer, who makes his own contract, the pro-
vision il as follows:


"For any acts or things herein declared TO be cause


for the discharge of servant or for any brsaeh ot


duty BY hin. instead Of dscharging the servant


the master may complain ~ the District Judge or one
Of the Magistrates. who shall have power. ON being
satisfied Of the misconduct complained Of to inaic
the servant such coporca punishment as fu In tho
army or navy Of the United States"


That is very adroit way ofputting III but it
is impossible to disguise tho fact that the law