Most Southern leaders agreed that the removal of the master's protection was a
real loss to the Negro which must be made good to some extent by giving the
Negro a status in court and by accepting Negro testimony in all cases in which
blacks were concerned. The North Carolina committee on laws for freedmen
agreed with objectors that "there are comparatively few of the slaves lately
freed who are honest" and truthful, but maintained that the Negroes were
capable of improvement. The chief executives of Mississippi and Florida
declared that there was no danger to the whites in admitting the more or less
unreliable Negro testimony, for the courts and juries would in every case
arrive at a proper valuation of it. Governors Marvin of Florida and Humphreys
of Mississippi advocated practical civil equality, while in North Carolina and
several other States there was a disposition to admit Negro testimony only in
cases in which Negroes were concerned. The North Carolina committee
recommended the abolition of whipping as a punishment unfit for free people,
and most States accepted this principle. Even in 1865, the general disposition
was to make uniform laws for both races, except in regard to violation of
contracts, immoral conduct, vagrancy, marriage, schools, and forms of
punishment. In some of these matters the whites were to be more strictly
regulated; in others, the Negroes.

There was further general agreement that in economic relations both races must
be protected, each from the other; but it is plain that the leaders believed
that the Negro had less at stake than the white. The Negro was disposed to be
indolent; he knew little of the obligations of contracts; he was not honest;
and he would leave his job at will. Consequently Memminger recommended
apprenticeship for all Negroes; Governor Marvin suggested it for children
alone; and others wished it provided for orphans only. Further, the laws
enacted must force the Negroes to settle down, to work, and to hold to
contracts. Memminger showed that, without legislation to enforce contracts and