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From some occupations Negroes were wholly excluded; others, they were permitted to engage in, only after obtaining licenses. The Alabama Code^[78] of 1867 provided that no free Negro should be licensed to keep a tavern or to sell vinous or spirituous liquors. There had been a statute of the same State which declared that a free Negro should not be employed to sell or to assist in the sale of drugs or medicine, under a penalty of one hundred dollars, but this had been repealed in 1866.^[79]

In South Carolina,^[80] it was unlawful for a Negro either to own a distillery of spirituous liquors or any establishment where they were sold. The violation of this law was a misdemeanor punishable by fine, corporal punishment or hard labor. The law of this State^[81] went still further by enacting that no person of color should pursue or practice the art, trade, or business of an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper, “or any other trade, employment, or business (besides that of husbandry, or that of a servant under contract for service or labor) on his own account and for his own benefit, or in partnership with a white person, or as agent or servant of any person” until he should have obtained a license. This license was good for one year only. Before granting the license the judge had to be satisfied of the skill, fitness, and good moral character of the applicant. If the latter wished to be a shopkeeper or peddler, the annual license fee was one hundred dollars; if a mechanic, artisan, or a member of any other trade, ten dollars. The judge might revoke the license upon a complaint made to him. Negroes could not practice any mechanical art or trade without showing either that they had served their term of apprenticeship or were then practicing the art or trade. For violation of this rule, the Negro had to pay a fine of double the amount of the license, one-half to go to the informer.

In some States, there was a limitation upon the right of Negroes to hold land as tenants. A statute of Mississippi^[82] in 1865 gave them the right to sue and be sued, to hold property, etc., but declared that the provisions of the statute should not be construed to allow any freeman, free Negro, or mulatto to rent or lease any lands, except in incorporated towns or cities in which places the corporate authorities should control the same. The same statute required every freeman, free Negro, or mulatto to have on January 1, 1866, and annually thereafter, a lawful home and employment with written evidence thereof. If living in an incorporated town, he must have a license from the mayor, authorizing him to do irregular job work—that is, if he was not under some written contract for service; if living outside such a town, he must have a similar license from a member of the board of police of his precinct.

Tennessee,^[83] on the other hand, went to the length of expressly throwing open all trades to Negroes who complied with the license laws which were applicable to whites and blacks alike.