480 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
accordance with the regulations of the bureau, and must be regis- tered by the agent, who charged large fees. Unskilled labor was classified into three grades, and men and women were to be paid $10, $8, and $6 per month, according to the grade, and half- grown children $6. 18 In addition, they were to have food, full quarters, clothing, medical attendance, and schooling for their children. The working-day was ten hours from April to October, and nine hours from November to March. The task system, as well as the overseer, was forbidden, and the " share " system was discouraged. Wages were secured by a lien on crops or land, and this was prior to any other lien. Breach of contract was tried by bureau agent, bureau court, provost-marshal, or military com- mission. No contract for a longer time than six months was approved. The chain-gang hard labor system of punishment of convicts was abolished. Where the laborer received no supplies his pay was fixed at the rate of wages paid for able-bodied slaves before the war. If a negro was found working under a verbal contract, his employer was arrested or warned to conform to regulations. Planters were continually in trouble with the bureau agent, who summoned them before him on the slightest pretexts. The lien on the crop prevented the moving or sale of the crop, unless the negro consented ; yet the planter had to sell before he could pay wages. 14
The result of these regulations was to destroy industry where an alien bureau agent was stationed, unless the agent was purchasable; for the planters could not afford to have their land worked on such terms. In some of the counties, where the native magistrates served as bureau agents, no attention was paid to the rules of the bureau, and the people floundered
"Skilled labor should receive $2.50, $2, or $1.50 per day.
"Montgomery Mail, May 12, 1865; Howard's Circular, May 30, 1865; Cir- cular No. ii, War Department, July 12, 1865 ; Huntsville Advocate, July 26, 1865 ; Swayne's reports, 1865, 1866; General Order No. 12, Department of Alabama, August 30, 1865 ; General Order No. 13, September, 1865 ; Selma Times. December 4, 1865. While General Howard was in Mobile, some of the planters asked him to bind to them for a term of years their former slaves, in case the latter were willing. Howard was, of course, horrified at such a proposal. The so-called " black laws " passed by the legislature in 1865-66 were scarcely heard of by the people who hired negroes, and were never in force.
