The Black Codes were passed by the state legislatures since they were made up purely of white people and many sought to restrict the influence free blacks had on politics and keep them from advancing socially. For example, some of the restrictions included prohibiting them from voting, bearing arms, and learning to read and write. Many southerners also tried to preserve the slave system and work on the plantations by forcing blacks to sign yearly labor contracts and if they didn't, they risked being arrested, fined, and forced into unpaid labor. Although blacks could make some money for their labor, the were still treated poorly and the owners charged almost as much for rent as their wages.Some of these laws were so extreme that the blacks were physically harmed. The vagrancy law allowed white people to not be punished for misdemeanors which encouraged them to persecute and punish people of black color. An example of this is The Memphis Massacre of 1866 in which white mobs roamed the streets killing freed blacks. While these extreme laws allowed for terrible actions to occur, they eventually helped the North recognize that what was happening was wrong, and the North took power in the Government to try and protect the black's rights. Still, even with laws in place to protect the blacks, many people to this day still treat blacks as an inferior race.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes_(United_States)
Hi Ethan,
ReplyDeleteYour post is very thorough and concise; I found it interesting that New York and Illinois had Black Codes even though they had supported the North in the Civil War. I researched this and found that the Illinois Black Codes were abolished in 1865 while the Mississippi Black Codes, a deep south state, were abolished in 1866. I couldn't find an exact reason why, but I assume it was because when the 13th Amendment was enacted, the North immediately complied with it while the South was more hesitant.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes
I really liked your blog post and how it was clear and concise and stuck to the facts of a rather dicey situation in American history. After reading this, I did some additional research on the topic of oppression against black people in America to see how these black codes ended. However, even though a lot of states pulled back on their Black Codes, after Military Reconstruction, groups such as the Ku Klux Klan kept blacks oppressed even if there weren't any official laws that did it. To make things worse, the federal government legalized segregation which was just another way for blacks to be oppressed without having the slavery system.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws