Black codes
Black codes were laws enacted in the 19th century aimed at controlling various aspects of African American life, particularly after the Civil War. While they began as slave codes targeting enslaved individuals, they evolved to include free African Americans, imposing significant restrictions and ensuring compliance with White authority. Following the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, former Confederate states implemented black codes that granted certain civil rights, such as the right to marry and own property, but simultaneously enforced discriminatory practices. These laws prohibited interracial marriage, restricted the right to bear arms, and limited the ability of African Americans to testify against White individuals in court. Additionally, black codes often mandated that freed Black individuals secure employment with local landowners or risk forced labor, thereby maintaining a socioeconomic structure reminiscent of slavery. The backlash against these codes contributed to the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which aimed to protect civil rights for all citizens. However, the implementation of these rights was limited, and many of the oppressive aspects of black codes were later revived under Jim Crow laws. The struggle for full civil rights continued well into the 20th century, culminating in significant legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
On this Page
Black codes
In their broadest sense, black codes were laws aimed at controlling African American life in the nineteenth century. Some early examples of these laws, the slave codes, applied only to enslaved people. As the Black population grew, free African Americans also became increasingly subject to discriminatory laws designed to ensure their acquiescence to White rule. For example, some states refused to allow Black people to carry canes, a widely recognized symbol of authority, and free African Americans in nearly all states could be sold into slavery for failure to pay their taxes. Moreover, fearing that free African Americans might incite or assist slave insurrections, especially in the wake of Nat Turner’s revolt (1831), antebellum black codes became increasingly severe. In most southern states, free African American status was barely distinguishable from slave status on the eve of the Civil War.
However, the term “black codes” most commonly refers to laws passed by former Confederate state legislatures in response to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1865). On one hand, these laws bestowed certain civil rights on the newly freed Black population. While the legal details varied from state to state, all black codes legitimized marriage between African Americans, recognized African Americans' right to own property, and permitted African Americans to sue and be sued, enter into contracts, and testify in court cases involving other African Americans. On the other hand, most black codes forbade interracial marriage, denied African Americans the right to bear arms, and prohibited African Americans from testifying against White people in courts of law. On an even more negative note, the black codes merely granted Black Americans an apprentice-like status that in no way conferred genuine freedom. They also attempted to tie Black employment to a socioeconomic system that closely resembled slavery. Most states required newly freed African Americans to secure employment with a local landowner or face involuntary service in plantation labor. Free Black Americans were also subject to involuntary service for civil offenses ranging from vagrancy and derogatory gestures to “mischief” and preaching the Gospel without a license. Moreover, in some states, White landowners were subject to a fine or imprisonment for attempting to hire Black laborers who were already under contract to someone else.
Appalled by the actions of Southern states, some Northern members of Congress began calling for legislation that would ensure civil rights throughout the country. The result was the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbade denial of “life, liberty, and property without due process of law” and guaranteed citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. This amendment, ratified on July 28, 1868, constitutionally guaranteed civil rights that had been stipulated earlier in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This underpinned the period of radical reform known as Reconstruction, but those federally overseen efforts ended in 1877 with limited impact on enfranchising Black populations. Southern leaders then quickly reinstated much of the spirit of the black codes with a new wave of legislation that would come to be known as Jim Crow laws. It would take nearly a century, as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act, for Black Americans to legally gain their full civil rights under this constitutional amendment.
Bibliography
"Black Codes." Jim Crow Museum, jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/links/misclink/blackcode.htm. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
"Black Codes (1865)." National Constitution Center, constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/mississippi-south-carolina-black-codes-1865. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
"Black Codes and Pig Laws." Slavery By Another Name, PBS, www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/black-codes-and-pig-laws/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Edwards, Laura F. A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights. Cambridge UP, 2015.
Finkelman, Paul. "Original Intent and the Fourteenth Amendment: Into the Black Hole of Constitutional Law." Chicago-Kent Law Review 89.3 (2014): 1019–63.
Richards, Leonard. Who Freed the Slaves? The Fight Over the Thirteenth Amendment. U of Chicago P, 2015.
Wallenstein, Peter. Blue Laws and Black Codes: Conflicts, Courts, and Change in Twentieth-Century Virginia. U of Virginia P, 2004.
White, Edward G. "The Origins of Civil Rights in America." Case Western Law Review 64.4 (2014): 755–816.