The Purpose Of The Black Codes

1: Black Codes: A body of laws, statutes, and rules enacted by southern states immediately after the Civil War to regain control over the freed slaves, maintain white supremacy, and ensure the continued supply of cheap labor.

The Black Codes specifically made it illegal for blacks to remain unemployed. Those who weren’t employed were subject to arrest or a fine. But, most couldn't afford their fine due to trouble in getting a job. If they couldn’t afford the fine, they would be put into involuntary labor until their work paid off the fine.

These were a series of laws enacted mostly in the Southern United States in the later half of the 19th century that restricted most of the new privileges granted to African American after the Civil War. The discriminatory Jim Crow laws were enacted to support the notion of racial segregation. They required black and white people to use separate water fountains, public schools, public bathhouses, restaurants, public libraries, and rail cars in public transit. Originally called the Black Codes they later became known as Jim Crow laws, after a familiar minstrel character of the day. The laws became the legal

State governments started making laws called black codes to limit what rights the newly freed slaves had and what they could do. In Document 2, it shows one of the Southern state’s list of black codes. The black codes stopped the African Americans from doing things they were now allowed to do under the federal government. This document was addressing blacks

Black Codes were enacted in 1865 and 1866 by new southern state governments. Similar to the Slave Codes that existed before the Civil War, these Black Codes sought to regulate past slaves lives such as prohibiting freed slaves to serve on juries or to testify against a white person in court. Although the Black Codes granted African Americans to possess and sell property and legalized black marriages, interracial marriage between white and black Americans was outlawed. Unfortunately, some states even went further to control the lives of African Americans by limiting their economic freedoms such as, preventing any African Americans from purchasing or renting farmland in the state of Mississippi. As a result of decreeing the Black Codes, a division

Some northerners believed that the black codes where a backdoor attempt at reestablishing slavery. I do agree, I agree because they wanted slavery they wanted people to work for them and not have to pay them. The black codes were put into place to restrict what blacks did. When blacks gained rights the black codes basically just took them away. White’s would scare them into working for them and the black codes just helped that. They would either pay them really low wages or put them debt. This is just a few reasons why I believe that the black codes were just a backdoor attempt to get slavery back.

The Black Codes in the Southern society which had many provisions of orders was published in 1865 and 1866 to restrict the freedom of black people (African Americans) and to reinforce strength of white people. In a deeper meaning, this law was created to be like a way to preserve the slavery system.

The government fined vagrants and delinquents and forced them to work. Black codes were a government promoted version of slavery; allowing forms of corporal punishment, also making it illegal

These laws were passed between 1865 and 1866. Black Codes were “laws passed by Southern state legislatures that restricted African American’s rights to testify against whites, serve on juries or in state militias, or vote” (Class Notes, 9/18/17). This gave African Americans no freedom to accuse whether a white person did a crime and no right to vote. On some states, these laws also prevented blacks to own their land (Class Notes, 9/20/17). Having no freedom of owning a land prevented African Americans on having a stable and prosperous life.

The purpose of the black codes was to keep black people from voting. The result was the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which prohibited using race as a reason to prevent people from voting. The emancipation of black slaves in post Civil War America did not run smoothly. Though the slaves had been freed in name, many did not feel secure about giving black people rights. The black codes prevented black Americans from voting and restricted their

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

With the Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, millions of slaves were given their freedom. Although these millions of slaves are now free, the rebuilding on the South during the Reconstruction introduced many obstacles. These obstacles include sharecropping, tenant farming, the “black codes”, and not to forget the lack of education and rights African Americans had at the time. Sharecropping is consisted of a slave renting land from a white man and having to give up a portion of their crops at the end of each year. The black codes were basically laws against what type of labor African Americans can be given. In the state of South Carolina, blacks were only able to work as farmers or servants; the same jobs these free people worked as slaves. After decades of slavery, blacks were still under the control of the white people due to lack of education and rights.

Black Codes- laws passed after the Civil War that denied ex-slaves the civil rights enjoyed by whites (only in south)

     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.

Despite the black codes had provided rights such as the marriage legalization and the ownership of property, they violated the free labor principle and denied the African-Americans the right to vote, and sue any white man. Foner (2014) found “In response to planter’s demands that freed people be required to work on the plantations, the Black Codes declared that those who failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners” (p. 570) . In fact, it was a totally failure of what freedom was supposed to be.