Mississippi Black Code Analysis

The United States was founded on the belief that every man has “certain inalienable Rights.” Not until ninety years later, however, when slavery was abolished did the United States actually offer these “Rights” to all of its citizens. The 19th century was turbulent time of stress and change for America. One of the most controversial dilemmas was the issue of slavery. Slavery was conceived by many to be morally wrong, and it undermined America’s most valued beliefs. Despite this inconsistency, slavery was still widely supported and permitted out of economic necessity in the South.

Many would say that America was built on the principle that “all men are created equal” and that U.S. citizens are all given equal treatment, opportunities, and so on. But, is that really the case? Was Thomas Jefferson’s famous words, forever inscribed in the Declaration of Independence, meant for everyone? Taking a look back into America’s short (at least when compared to other countries) history, the phrase “all men are created equal” doesn’t really seem to correlate with the circumstances of that century. Africans were enslaved and forced to do hard, strenuous labor or else be forced to endure a beating by the slave master. But don’t forget, all men are created equal. It says so in the constitution. Fast forward a couple of hundred years where all men still aren’t equal, but are close to it.

     Imagine yourself wrongly convicted of a crime. You spent years in jail awaiting your release date. It finally comes, and when they let you out, they slap handcuffs around your wrists and tell you every single action you do. In a nutshell, that’s how the Black Codes worked. The southerners wanted control over the blacks after the Civil War, and states created their own Black Codes.

Early in our county’s history almost all black people came here as slaves. Because people in the South felt they needed cheap labor in building land and because black people in Africa knew how to farm land like the ones in the South, they were taken from their homes and forced to come to America. Arriving in this county, they were sold to whites as slaves without rights or freedom. IN 1776, the American Colonies declared their freedom from Great Britain. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson write that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable right; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He declared that all citizens have their rights and equal opportunities in pursuing their goals. Efforts to give black people their rights never stopped, but the changes were not enough. After War II, many people felt that new laws were needed. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that blacks and whites could go to the same schools. However,

America by far is the most diverse country on the face of the earth. America today is known for freedom, equality, democracy, and a defender against tyranny. The foundation of American values lay in a belief of independence, nationalism, capitalism, and religion. However, many conflicts have arisen over these values in the past. Capitalism and other characteristics have made America great, but they have brought about their own set of inequalities. Those inequalities have deep roots in race, culture, gender, and wealth. In the 1800s two of the biggest conflict lies with the issue of slavery and women’s rights.

Whites thought they didn't merit these rights since they were mediocre compared to themselves and just not as much as human. These restrictions were so unforgiving; it is, as slavery had never finished. The blacks were free; however huge numbers of the Negroes regular rights were abrogated. Area 3 of the Louisiana Black Code states that no Negro might be allowed to lease or keep a house inside said ward. Area 9 pronounces that no Negro should offer, trade, or trade any articles of stock or movement inside said ward. What's more, one of the most noticeably bad of these codes is in Section 4 of the Louisiana Black Code. Each Negro is required to be in the general administration of some white individual, or previous proprietor, who might be considered in charge of the conductor of said Negro. This was fundamentally returning paid-slavery. Numerous blacks stayed on these homesteads and ranches in light of the fact that they didn't realize what else they could do after liberation. In any case, now they were being constrained into staying on the grounds that few knew something besides farming. So in these ways Louisiana Black Codes don't fulfill the social

the thought od full human equality has beena major bequest (and ageing change) of the Declaration of Independence. however the signers of independence. however the signers of 1776 failed to have quite that radical associate degree agenda directly. Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era. though he was the chief author of the Declaration, he additionally in hand slaves, as did several of his fellow signers. They failed to see full human equality as a positive social goal. President of the United States was ready to Criticize slavery rather more directly thane most of his colleagues. His Original draft of the Declaration enclosed a protracted passage that condemned King George for permitting the slave traffic to flourish.This understood Criticism of slavery a central establishment in early yankee Society-was deleted by a vote of the Continental Congress before the delegates signed the Declaration. therefore what did the signers intend by exploitation such idealistic language? that every one men area unit created equal. therefore area unit life, Liberty and also the pursuit of Happiness.”The Declarations of Independence and Its de jure “When within the Course of human events. It becomes necessary for one individuals to dissolve

The newly passed laws became known as “Black Codes” and socially, they directly impacted the lives of all freedmen and indirectly benefited the white race. These laws restricted the rights of free African-American men and women (Doc A). In Opelousas, Louisiana, some of these restrictions were the denied right to keep or own a house in the town, the denied right to enter the town without special permission, the denied right to hold public meetings, the denied right to carry firearms or any kind of weapon, and a requirement that every negro must be in service of some white person (Doc A). The elite members in the South did everything they could to prevent blacks from gaining civic power, and the reasoning for supporting these codes ranged from fearing black political influence to the comfort of knowing farmers still had a stable and reliable work force. Even in the post civil war North, people believed blacks were unfit to be government officials (Doc E). Pro-freedman presses ran racist letters arguing blacks were not fit for the proper exercise of political duties, and their generation needed a period of probation and instruction in order to learn the ways in which society ran (Doc E). Many northerners felt blacks were incompetent to hold important jobs; therefore, the government was in no way aiding the reconstruction efforts to provide equality to all people in America.

From the moment Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the United States of America established itself as a nation built upon the foundation of equality. In the legendary document, Jefferson proclaimed, “all men... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights... life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Declaration).” Contradictorily, when the separatists fled England for an auspicious future in North America, their treatment of the Native American and Spanish occupants was inhumane, barbaric, and not becoming of a civilization ingrained with the principles of equality. Moreover, the pioneers of the “free” world marginalized, ostracized, and chimerically represented the African race more than any other minority. Paradoxically dubbed the “man of the people”, Thomas Jefferson illuminated his true interpretation of equality in Notes on the State of Virginia. “We have had under our eyes the races of black and of red men, they have never yet been viewed by us as subjects of natural history,” he wrote. “I advance it... that the blacks... are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind (history).” Despite what the media conveys, this belief system lingered and particularly exists in the Department of Justice. For years, our government controlled the amount of accessible, viable, and financially rewarding opportunities for impoverished African Americans through the surreptitious agendas of law enforcement. However, Los Angeles

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did

About a hundred years after the Civil War, almost all American lived under the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws actually legalized segregation. These racially enforced rules dominated almost every aspect of life, not to mention directed the punishments for any infraction. The key reason for the Jim Crow Laws was to keep African Americans as close to their former status as slaves as was possible. The following paper will show you the trials and tribulations of African Americans from the beginning through to the 1940’s where segregation was at its peak.

The Black Codes was masked slavery. Other than some new, small leniencies, Mississippi succeeded in making laws that that still controlled African Americans. These Sections were created for the South to bend the rules by exploiting children. These laws were aimed at minors under the age of 18 that were orphans or whose parents were unable to financially provide for them. At this point, the child would be placed back in the “care” of their former master or mistress. These codes stated that the best interest of the minor was to be protected, that they were to be fed, clothed, treated humanely; taught to read if under the age of fifteen and to receive medical attention when sick. In return, the minor, or apprentice would be bounded by indenture until the age of eighteen for a female and twenty one for a male. It was also acceptable for the former owner to chastise under what was allowed for punishment by the common law. If the child were to escape, it was permitted to place the child in jail if refused to return. That only discharge from a master/mistress would be possible if the courts believed the apprentice had a good cause to quit. Those are just few examples to begin with. These codes essentially worked to separate the races in all aspects of life from children to adults, such as marriage, which would result in life in prison if wedded to a white person. They also were not allowed to own any type of weapon unless they served in the United States military, and were to be fined and possibly imprisoned to even drinking liquor to a level of intoxication. Over all, these are just a few of the examples that were laws to “freed” men to be kept

The United States of America is known for its claims of democracy, equality, and freedom for all of it’s citizens. These claims are the foundation of America’s independence and essentially its entire history. But “claims” are simply all they were in history. While many achieved equal democracy and freedom, the African-American population of the US was exempt from these “inalienable rights” and heavily oppressed by society. The cruelty of slavery and oppression as a whole reached its peak in the 19th century bringing upon the abolitionist movement, which eventually aided in the historic removal of slavery and the continued fight for equal right of citizenship for African-Americans. Of the many abolitionists who fought for

The dichotomy of freedom and slavery in rhetoric and rise of the United States of America has long been an enigma, a source of endless debate for scholars and citizens alike who wonder how a nation steeped in the ideals of republicanism could so easily subjugate and enslave an entire group of people. The Chesapeake region was home to America’s great statesmen, men who espoused ideals of freedom and liberty from tyranny. Yet at the same time, these men held hundreds of men, women, and children in conditions of lifelong bondage. How then did this dichotomy arise? The dangers posed by indentured servants that became freemen resulted in the development of a system of African-descended chattel slavery in the Chesapeake, a system whose creation and continuance was aided by a continuum of racial thinking and racial prejudice aimed at Africans in Virginia.