were exacted of the
free black man during the era of slavery. Every avenue for improvement
was closed against him; and in a State which boasted somewhat
indelicately of its chivalric dignity, the negro was mercilessly
excluded from all chances to better his condition individually, or to
improve the character of his race.

Mississippi followed in the general line of penal enactments prescribed
in South Carolina, though her code was possibly somewhat less severe in
the deprivations to which the negro was subjected. It was, however,
bad enough to stir the indignation of every lover of justice. The
Legislature had enacted a law that "if the laborer shall quit the
service of the employer before the expiration of his term of service
without just cause, he shall forfeit his wages for the year up to the
time of quitting." Practically the negro was himself never permitted
to judge whether the cause which drove him to seek employment elsewhere
was just, the white man being the sole arbiter in the premises. It
was provided that "every civil officer shall, and every person may,
arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free
negro or mulatto, who shall have quit the service of his or her
employer before the expiration of his term of service without good
cause, and said officer shall be entitled to receive for arresting and
carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of five
dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place
of delivery, and these sums shall be held by the employer as a set-off
for so much against the wages of said deserting employee; _provided_
that said arrested party, after being so returned home, may appeal to
a justice of the peace, or a member of the Board of Police, who shall
summarily try whether said appellant is legally employed by the
alleged employer."

It required little familiarity with Southern administration of justice
between a white man and a negro to know that such appeal was always
worse then fruitless, and that its only effect, if attempted, would be
to secure even harsher treatment than if the appeal had not been made.
The provisions for enticing a negro from his employer, included in this
Act, were in the same spirit and almost in the same language as the
provisions of the slave-code applicable to the negro before the era
of emancipation. The person "giving or selling to any deserting
freedman, free negro or mulatto, any food, raim