Any person who shall persuade or entice away from the service of an employer any person who is under a contract of labor to such employer, or any apprentice who is bound as such, from the service of his master, or who shall feed, harbor, or secret such person under contract, or apprentice who has left the employment of employer or master, without the permission of such employer or master, the person or persons so offending shall be liable in damages to the employer or master.

All labor contracts shall be made with the heads of families; they shall embrace the labor of all the members of these family named therein able to work, and shall be binding on all minors of said families.

The labor of the employee shall be governed by the terms stipulated in the contract: he shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent, take proper care of his work-mules, horses, oxen, stock of all character and kind; also, all agricultural implements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from the laborer’s wages for injuries done to animals, or agricultural implements committed to their care, or for bad or negligent work. Failing to obey reasonable orders, neglect of duty, leaving home without permission, impudence, swearing, or indecent language to, or in the presence of, the employer, his family, or agent, or quarreling and fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience.

Laborers, in the various duties of the household, and in all the domestic duties of the family, shall, at all hours of the day or night, and on all days of the week, promptly answer all calls and obey and execute all lawful orders and commands of the family in whose service they are employed. It is the duty of this class of laborers to be especially civil and polite to their employer, his family, and guests, and they shall receive gentle and kind treatment.

Apprenticeship provisions

It shall be the duty of all sheriffs to report to the judge of the county court all indigent or vagrant minors within their respective counties, and also all minors whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse, to support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the county judge to apprentice said minor to some suitable or competent person, on such terms as the court may direct.

If any apprentice shall run away from, or leave the employ of, his master or mistress without permission, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his master or mistress.

Any person who shall knowingly and wilfully entice away an apprentice, or conceal or harbor a deserting apprentice, shall, upon conviction thereof, pay to the master or mistress five dollars per day for each day.

Vagrancy provisions

A vagrant is hereby declared to be an idle person, living without any means of support, and making no exertions to obtain a livelihood by any honest employment. All persons who stroll about to tell fortunes, or to exhibit tricks or cheats in public, not licensed by law; common prostitutes and professional gamblers, or persons who keep houses for prostitutes or for gamblers; persons who go about to beg alms, and who are not afflicted or disabled by a physical malady or misfortune; and habitual drunkards, who abandon, neglect, or refuse to aid in the support of their families, and who may be complained of by their families; or persons who stroll idly about the streets of town or cities, having no local habitation and no honest business or employment, each and all of the above aforesaid classes be, and they are hereby, declared vagrants, coming within the meaning of this act.

A peace officer shall arrest a vagrant and bring him or her before the court or magistrate issuing the warrant, and if no peace officer can be conveniently procured the warrant may be directed to any private person, who shall execute and return the warrant according to law.

Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 221-27.