or mulatto," should be considered vagrants. The white man so convicted was punishable by a fine of two hundred dollars and imprisonment for not more than six months; the Negro, by a fine of fifty dollars and imprisonment for not over ten days. A Negro unable to pay his fine might be hired out for the purpose, but no such provision applied to whites.
PAUPER LAWS
Another perplexing problem that faced the Southern legislatures was how to meet the needs of the paupers, white and Negro. Much of the property of the white people had been swept away entirely or had greatly deteriorated in value as a result of the War. Few of the Negroes, to be sure, had property to lose, but what was worse, they had lost their right to look to the white people for sustenance. Many of them were unable to support themselves, and the white people could not help them. The legislatures, therefore, adopted the plan of levying a tax upon each race for the support of its own indigents. South Carolina and Mississippi again took the lead.
In South Carolina,[60] when a person of color was unable to earn his support and was likely to become a public charge, the father and grandfathers, mother and grandmothers, child and grandchildren, brother and sister of such a person should each according to ability contribute for the support of his or her relative. In each judicial district there was a "Board of Relief of Indigent Persons of Color," consisting of from four to eight magistrates, each magistrate looking after the indigent Negroes in his precinct. There was a fund, composed of fees paid for the
