Other punishments were generally the same for both races, except the hiring out for petty offenses.
From the Southern point of view none of this legislation was regarded as a restriction of Negro rights but as a wide extension to the Negro of rights never before possessed, an adaptation of the white man's laws to his peculiar case.

It is doubtful whether in some of the states the authorities believed that there were any discriminatory laws; they probably overlooked some of the free Negro legislation already on the statute books.

In Alabama, for example, General Wager Swayne, the head of the Freedmen's Bureau, reported that all such laws had either been dropped by the legislature or had been vetoed by the governor.

Yet the statute books do show some discriminations.

There is a marked difference between earlier and later legislation.