The constitutionality of these apprentice laws was tested as early as 1867.[112] A Negro girl, who had been a slave in Maryland and had been freed by the Constitution of that State, November 1, 1864, was, two days later, apprenticed by her mother to her former master. The laws governing Negro apprentices differed from those governing white apprentices in that the master did not obligate himself to teach the Negro apprentice reading, writing, and arithmetic, and retained the right to transmit the apprentice anywhere in the county. Upon a petition for a writ of _habeas corpus_, the Federal court held that the Maryland law resulted in practical slavery and, hence, violated the Thirteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Bill of 1866. The other Southern States had apprentice laws, possibly as detailed as the ones here considered, but they cannot be treated of here because they applied to white and colored children alike. VAGRANCY LAWS The present vagrancy laws of the South have been much criticised for the reason, as it is alleged, that they are used to get recruits for chain gangs and convict camps, and that Negro vagrants are taken up while white vagrants go scotfree. Be that as it may, the fault lies with the officers, not with the law, for the law, on its face, applies to both races equally. But the first years after the War did witness the enactment of vagrancy laws which had special application to Negroes. Some States passed vagrancy laws which made no race distinction, but, as in the case of apprentices, it is beyond dispute that they were aimed especially at the Negro.