y,
trespass, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, language or acts, or
committing any other misdemeanor, to be fined and imprisoned, or if the
fine is not paid in five days to be hired out to whoever will pay fine
and costs. All penal and criminal laws against offenses by slaves or
free negroes to continue in force except as specially repealed.

Many of these clauses speak eloquently for themselves, and as to the law
in general Professor Burgess, who certainly has no anti-Southern bias,
comments: "Almost every act, word or gesture of the negro, not
consonant with good taste and good manners as well as good morals, was
made a crime or misdemeanor, for which he could first be fined by the
magistrates and then be consigned to a condition of almost slavery for
an indefinite time, if he could not pay the bill." And Professor Burgess
adds, "This is a fair sample of the legislation subsequently passed by
all the States reconstructed under President Johnson's plan."

The case against this class of laws may be left--in the necessary limits
of space--with this careful and moderate statement, though the
temptation is strong to quote from Mr. Schurz and other authorities
further specimens of the great body of harassing legislation, both state
and local;--the establishment of pillory and whipping-post; the
imposition of unjust taxes, with heavy license fees for the practice of
mechanic arts; requirements of certified employment under some white
man; prohibition of preaching or religious meetings without a special
license; sale into indefinite servitude for slight occasion; and so
on--a long, grim chapter. Whatever excuses may be pleaded for these
laws, under the circumstances of the South, all have this
implication,--that the negro was unfit for freedom. He was to be kept as
near to slavery as possible; to be made, "if no longer the slave of an
individual master, the slave of society." And further, as to the broad
conditions of the time, two things are to be noted. The physical
violence was almost wholly practiced by the whites against the negroes.
Bands of armed white men, says Mr. Schurz, patrolled the highways (as in
the days of slavery) to drive back wanderers; murder and mutilation of
colored men and women were common,--"a number of such cases I had
occasion to examine myself." In some districts there was a reign of
terror among the freedmen. And finally, the anticipation of failure of
voluntary labor speedily proved ground