- tice was entitled to not over sixty dollars from his master.
To the apprentice also applied the provisions for the servant under contract, which have been considered, except that the master was bound to furnish him medical aid, as he did not have to do in the case of the servant. And for apprentices also, as in the case of servants, there was a regular form of contract which was understood to contain all the above stipulations.
In Delaware,[56] not a Southern State, but much like the Southern States in its dealings with the Negro, in its code of 1852 as amended in 1893, is this belated statute: "Any two justices of the peace, on receiving information of any Negro or mulatto child in their county, having no parents in this State, or who, being under the age of fifteen years, have no parent able to maintain them, or who do not bring them up to industry and stable employment, shall issue process to a constable commanding him to bring such child before them at a specified time and place, and to give notice thereof to the parents, if any, and shall thereupon inquire into their circumstances; and if it appear to be a proper case for binding such child, they shall proceed to bind said child as a servant, unless they shall deem the binding, under the circumstances, to be inexpedient."
The constitutionality of these apprentice laws was tested as early as 1867.[57] A Negro girl, who had been a slave in Maryland and had been freed by the Constitution of that State, November 1, 1864, was, two days later, apprenticed by her mother to her former master. The laws governing Negro apprentices differed from those governing white apprentices in that the master did not obligate himself to teach the Negro apprentice reading, writing, and
