Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/61

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should still remain in the State fifteen days longer, he was to be transported beyond the limits of the State for life "or kept at hard labor, with occasional solitary confinement, for a period not exceeding five years." The same punishment of banishment for life, or confinement and hard labor for a term was prescribed for any person of color coming or being brought into South Carolina after having been convicted of an infamous crime in another State.

That the Southern States believed that the day of the Negro as a laborer was over was evidenced, not only by their efforts to keep Negroes out of the State, but also by the fact that so many of them, during the first years after the War, passed statutes encouraging and offering inducements to foreign immigrants. The movement to bring foreigners into the South is still going on, but it has never met with much success.

Although to-day many places, both in the North and in the South, do not permit Negroes to reside within their borders or even to stay over night, the above are apparently the last instances where attempts to limit the movement of Negroes[22] have been made by State legislatures. Most of the States have concluded to allow Negroes to come and go at will, but to fix their status while in the State.


LIMITATIONS UPON NEGROES IN RESPECT TO OCCUPATIONS

From some occupations Negroes were wholly excluded; others, they were permitted to engage in, only after obtaining licenses. The Alabama Code[23] of 1867 provided that no free Negro should be licensed to keep a tavern or to