<P> The "Twenty Negro Law", also known as the "Twenty Slave Law" and the "Twenty Nigger Law", was a piece of legislation enacted by the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War . The law specifically exempted from Confederate military service one white man for every twenty slaves owned on a Confederate plantation, or for two or more plantations within five miles of each other that collectively had twenty or more slaves . Passed as part of the Second Conscription Act in 1862, the law was a reaction to United States President Abraham Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued barely three weeks earlier . The law addressed Confederate fears of a slave rebellion due to so many white men being absent from home, as they were fighting in the Confederate army . The Confederacy enacted the first conscription laws in United States history, and the percentage of Confederate soldiers who were conscripts was nearly double that of United States soldiers . </P> <P> The law would prove extremely unpopular with poorer white Confederate men, many of whom did not own any slaves at all, and would contribute to the often - repeated adage of the Confederate war effort being "a rich man's war, but a poor man's fight ." </P>

Who was exempted from conscription during the civil war
find me the text answering this question