198 Mississippi Black Codes (1865)

Vagrancy Law

Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi that all rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars, jugglers, or persons practicing unlawful games or plays, runaways, common drunkards, common nightwalkers, pilferers, lewd, wanton, or lascivious persons, in speech or behavior, common railers and brawlers, persons who neglect their calling or employment, misspend what they earn, or do not provide for the support of themselves or their families or dependents, and all other idle and disorderly persons, including all who neglect all lawful business, or habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame, gaming houses, or tippling shops, shall be deemed and considered vagrants under the provisions of this act. And on conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding $100 with all accruing costs and be imprisoned at the discretion of the court not exceeding ten days.

Section 2. Be it further enacted that all freedmen free Negroes and mulattoes in this state over the age of eighteen years found on the second Monday in January 1866 or thereafter with no lawful employment or business or found unlawfully assembling themselves together either in the day or nighttime and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality or living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mulatto shall be deemed vagrants.

Section 3. Be it further enacted that all justices of the peace, mayors, and aldermen of incorporated towns and cities of the several counties in this state shall have jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy in their respective towns, counties, and cities. And it is hereby made their duty whenever they shall ascertain that any person or persons in their respective towns, counties, and cities are violating any of the provisions of this act, to have said party or parties arrested and brought before them and immediately investigate said charge. And on conviction punish said party or parties as provided for herein. And it is hereby made the duty of all sheriffs, constables, town constables, city marshals and all like officers to report to some officer having jurisdiction all violations of any of the provisions of this act, and it shall be the duty of the county courts to inquire if any officers have neglected any of the duties required by this act.

Section 7. Be it further enacted that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto shall fail or refuse to pay any tax levied according to the provisions of the 6th Section of this act it shall be prima facie evidence of vagrancy and it shall be the duty of the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, or such person refusing or neglecting to pay such tax and proceed at once to hire, for the shortest time, such delinquent taxpayer to anyone who will pay the said tax with accruing costs, giving preference to the employer if there be one.

Section 8. Be it further enacted that any person feeling himself or herself aggrieved by the judgment of any justice of the peace, mayor, or alderman in cases arising under this act may, within five days, appeal to the next term of the county court of the proper county upon giving bond and security in a sum not less than $25 nor more than $150 . . . and abide by the judgment of the county court and said appeal shall be tried de novo in the county court and the decision of said court shall be final.

Civil Rights of Freedmen

Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all the courts of law and equity of this state, and may acquire personal property and choses in action [property that can be sold or assigned], by descent or purchase and may dispose of the same in the same manner and to the same extent that white persons may: Provided that the provisions of this section shall not be construed as to allow any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to rent or lease any lands or tenements except in incorporated towns or cities in which places the corporate authorities shall control the same.

Section 2. Be it further enacted that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes may intermarry with each other in the same manner and under the same regulations that are provided by law for white persons: Provided that the clerk of probate shall keep separate records of the same.

Section 3. Be it further enacted that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes who do now and have heretofore lived and cohabited together as husband and wife shall be taken and held in law as legally married and the issue shall be taken and held as legitimate for all purposes. That it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto. And any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony and on conviction thereof shall be confined in the state penitentiary for life. And those shall be deemed freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes who are of pure Negro blood and those descended from a Negro to the third generation inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person.

Section 6. Be it further enacted that all contracts for labor made with freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes for a longer period than one month shall be in writing and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free Negro, or mulatto by a beat, city, or county officer or two disinterested white persons of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which each party shall have one. And said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before expiration of his term of service without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to the time of quitting.

Section 7. Be it further enacted 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 or her term of service without good cause. And said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of $5 and 10 cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and the same shall be paid by the employer and held as a setoff for so much against the wages of said deserting employee.

Section 9. Be it further enacted that if any person shall persuade or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to desert from the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of service or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free Negro, or mulatto or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman, free Negro, or mulatto any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and . . . such person on conviction shall be fined not less than $50 and not more than $1500 and costs. And if said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding six months’ imprisonment in the county jail.

Section 10. Be it further enacted that it shall be lawful for any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to charge any white person, freedman, free Negro, or mulatto by affidavit with any criminal offense against his or her person or property. And upon such affidavit, the proper process shall be issued and executed as if said affidavit was made by a white person. And it shall be lawful for any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto in any action, suit, or controversy pending or about to be instituted in any court of law or equity of this state to make all needful and lawful affidavits as shall be necessary for the institution, prosecution, or defense of such suit or controversy.

Penal Code

Section 5. Be it further enacted that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act shall fail or refuse for the space of five days after conviction to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs and take such convict for the shortest time.

Source: Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at a Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature, held in Jackson, October, November and December, 1865 (1866) 82-93, 165-167 http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/mississippiblackcode.html