<P> Whites could avoid the code's penalty by swearing a pauper's oath . In the case of blacks, however: "the duty of the sheriff of the proper county to hire out said freedman, free negro or mulatto, to any person who will, for the shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and all costs ." The laws also levied a special tax on blacks (between ages 18 and 60); those who did not pay could be arrested for vagrancy . </P> <P> Another law allowed the state to take custody of children whose parents could or would not support them; these children would then be "apprenticed" to their former owners . Masters could discipline these apprentices with corporal punishment . They could re-capture apprentices who escaped and threaten them with prison if they resisted . </P> <P> Other laws prevented blacks from buying liquor and carrying weapons; punishment often involved "hiring out" the culprit's labor for no pay . </P> <P> Mississippi rejected the Thirteenth Amendment on December 5 . </P>

What laws sought to limit the rights of african americans