A different punishment for the same offence was prescribed for the negroes; apprentice, vagrant, and contract labour laws tended to a system of peonage; and the prohibition of public assemblies, the restriction of freedom of movement, and the deprivation of means of defence illustrated the inequality of their rights.
Alexander highlights the discriminatory laws affecting African Americans in the South post-Civil War.
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The absence of violent democratic innovations was the Constitution's remarkable feature.
Its attitude was strong, defiant, and its only purpose apparently was to create a public sentiment hostile to the extension of slavery.
This reckless claim amazed his friends as much as it aroused his enemies, and he at once became the object of most cutting reproaches.
In less than twelve months we shall be in war, and that the bloodiest in history.
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