Virginia Tightens Slave Codes Summary

(Voices, pg. 69-67). Elizabeth describes her daily routine and the diet of Corn and salt which the Africans would welcome. Her garments are tattered and leaves much to be

"It declared that slaves needed written authorization to leave their plantation, that slaves found accountable of murder or rape would be hanged, that for robbing or any other major offence, the slave would receive sixty lashes and be placed in stocks, where his or her ears would be cut off, and that for minor offences, such as associating with whites, slaves would be whipped, branded, or maimed."(Henning 1) Black slaves were forbidden from carrying firearms by a 1639 Virginia law, which prearranged 20 lashes for violations of the law. "There was one exception: with his master’s permission, a slave could bear firearms to defend against Indian raids."(Goldenburg 2) For the 17th century slave in Virginia, disagreements with a master could be result before a court for judgment. A slave owner who wanted to stop the most defiant of slaves could now do so, aware any punishment he or she imposed, could include death and would not outcome in even the smallest amount slap on the wrist.

Especially considering the Civil Rights Movement was over 50 years ago. “IT IS NO ACCIDENT that the pivotal Supreme Court decision launching the modern civil rights movement was an education case -- the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling.” (Leadership Conference)

In this assignment I will be taking a further look into the history of slavery. When thinking of slavery the immediate thought that comes to mind is all the negative aspects of the system. Prior to this research, I was unaware of slave systems that were not based on the long labor hours and the torture of slaves. Granted, there were still forms of slavery that practiced these brutal rituals, where slaves were treated as animals and were malnourished. One prime example of this, is the book titled “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister”, looks at the history of a Bermudan slave named Mary Prince. Another example of slavery that will be incorporated in this paper will come from a source about a woman slave named Semsigul, born in Caucasus an area that

Africans were always seen as slaves rather than free people. It came to a point were generation from generation, people with African ancestry were legally enslaved for life. European colonists’ even committed to legalizing enslavement of hundreds and thousands of people, but it led to Africans being slaves based on race. Slavery was a big part in Virginia and South Carolina. The history of slavery in Virginia first appeared in 1619 where the Africans were indentured servants. As for South Carolina, majority of their population were African Americans. 65% of their population of about 18,000 people were African American slaves. Upon the social, economic and political development of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina, it impacted their race, class and gender.

In April of 1866, Congress enacted a Civil Rights Act in response to southern Black Codes. This Act granted new rights to native born blacks. They now had the right to testify in court, to sue, and to buy property. President Johnson vetoed the Act claiming it was an invasion of states' rights and would cause "discord among the races." Congress overrode the veto by a single vote. Which then marked the beginning of an escalating power struggle between the President and Congress that would eventually lead to impeachment. In June of 1866, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing civil liberties for both native born and naturalized Americans and prohibiting any state from depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property, without due process. This Amendment granted the right to vote to all males who were twenty one and older. Johnson opposed the Amendment on the grounds it did not apply to southerners who were without any representation in Congress. Tennessee was the only southern state to ratify the Amendment.

In the article “The Racist roots of Virginia’s felon disenfranchisement” by the Atlantic newspaper, basically it explains how Virginia, with the help of Jim Crow laws violated the rights for the African American to vote and to have equal liberty. It all came along with the poll taxes, literacy test, grandfather clauses and cross burning were used against the African Americans. “… The Republican Party ‘not only committed a stupendous blunder, but a great crime against civilization and Christianity’ against the south,” which it basically Virginia as one of the slave states, and didn’t follow the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment that was giving for the African Americans.

“All freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes…” is a recurring thing throughout the Mississippi Black Code Document in 1865. The Mississippi legislature passed the law that allows the freedom of negroes and mulattoes, however, they limited their rights after the emancipation period. They were supposed to be treated as equals to the rest of the population. Does “equal” mean equal in political and civil rights, or does it encompass much more? The legislature tried to rule over the blacks and to only allow them a few rights here and there, kind of as if they were still slaves and not free people. The purpose of the laws was “to limit the rights of the free blacks after emancipation and return them to a condition as close as possible to slavery.”

In addition to these rules, the codes also gave the slave owners the right to torture, whip, brand, and maim their slaves. However, they were not allowed to kill their slaves. Only a few men did, but were never prosecuted.

The main point of this article is that slavery had a lot more to do with West Virginia secession than what historians tend to think. Historians tend to think that western Virginia had no contact with the institution of slavery so therefore slavery had nothing to do with the succession of West Virginia. The problem with this notion is that western Virginia did have a slave presence and that was mostly in the Kanawha Valley. Slaves were used to work in the salt industry. This was different from how the slave institution looked in the South. Slavery in the south was based around plantation work and this differed from the work done in the Kanawha Valley. The Kanawha Valley relied a lot on the work of slaves in the salt industry. Even though Kanawha

During the time of slavery, Maryland was a big slaveholding state. Not many land holdings in the state were named plantations. Slavery in Maryland started in 1642 and by 1755 40% of the population in Maryland were slaves. By 1790 Maryland was the second largest free plantation state. By 1810 it was first and remained so until the end of slavery. Maryland was were Harriet Tubman and her family were all born.

Between 1880 and 1930, lynching became not only a phenomenon but a way of life in the southern states. Lynching was racially motivated as it targeted mostly blacks. Within this 50 year period, 1000s of blacks and hundreds of whites were killed by lynch mobs within the southern states alone. Lynching was bloody and ruthless and a horrifying way to be executed. In Fitzhugh Brundage’s book, Lynching in the New South Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930, he talks about how lynching peaked and expanded throughout Georgia and compares mob violence between Georgia and Virginia in that time period. Brundage states that “Lynching in the American South during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was but one manifestation of strenuous and bloody campaign by whites to elaborate and impose a racial hierarchy upon people of color throughout the globe” (Brundage 2). Whites used lynching as a means for social and economic control. They did not want blacks to have any power and wanted to keep them oppressed. This book explores the differences in lynch mobs between Georgia and Virginia, and how the whites used lynching as a way to keep economic control in the hands of the whites.

In the 19th century, slavery was a topic with tension between the North and the South. The Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850 heightened tension between the North and the South, when the law required all people to help with the capture and return of runaway slave, and the abolitionists wouldn’t help, until ultimately a war was started. The Fugitive Slave Acts were key factors to the Civil War because the laws were so controversial, and the acts caused a lot of tension between the North and South. The North and the South had already been fighting for years on the issue of slavery, but the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850 pushed the Abolitionists and the Southerners to want a war.

The Mississippi Black Code is a law that I don’t agree with. This was a law in which it was put in place by Southern after the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery. This type laws were just one way Southern try to keep free slaves socially, politically and economically in what they consider in there place with the southern states. Their where four parts to the code which where the Apprentice Law, Vagrancy Law, Civil Rights of Freedom and the Penal Code. With all this laws and codes free Negro and mulatto could be imprisoned or fined and forced in to work for a judge appointed employer due to violation on this laws and codes. The reason I disagree with this type of code the where made only for freed slaves not for everyone. Even

I agree with Patrick on the fact that one of the most important provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act was the provision that allowed the bounty hunting of slaves from free states. It allowed many to kidnap free blacks from free states and transport them across state lines to the slave states. They were allowed to inhumanely transport free human beings, which were seen as property in slave states, back into the barbaric enterprise of