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The Black Codes, sometimes called the Black Laws, were laws which governed the conduct of African Americans (both free and freedmen).In 1832, James Kent wrote that "in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political privileges, between free white persons and free colored persons of African blood; and in no part of the country do the latter, in point of fact ...
This is a list of examples of Jim Crow laws, which were state, territorial, and local laws in the United States enacted between 1877 and 1965. Jim Crow laws existed throughout the United States and originated from the Black Codes that were passed from 1865 to 1866 and from before the American Civil War.
Black Codes (1865–66) - series of laws passed by Southern state legislatures restricting the political franchise and economic opportunity of free blacks, with heavy legal penalties for vagrancy and restrictive employment contracts.
Although freedmen had been emancipated, their lives were greatly restricted by the black codes. The term "Black Codes" was given by "negro leaders and the Republican organs", according to historian John S. Reynolds. [11] [12] [13] The defining feature of the Black Codes was broad vagrancy law, which allowed local authorities to arrest freed ...
Most slave codes were concerned with the rights and duties of free people in regards to enslaved people. Slave codes left a great deal unsaid, with much of the actual practice of slavery being a matter of traditions rather than formal law. The primary colonial powers all had slightly different slave codes.
These laws, passed or updated after emancipation, were known as Black Codes. [101] Mississippi was the first state to pass such codes, with an 1865 law titled "An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen". [102] The Mississippi law required black workers to contract with white farmers by January 1 of each year or face punishment for vagrancy. [100]
These are old laws that are rarely enforced but are retained as a warning to ensure good behavior. However, a 2012 and 2019 case in Pennsylvania showed that these “scarecrow” laws could ...
For instance, several states made it illegal for a black man to change jobs without the approval of his employer. [11] If convicted of vagrancy, black people could be imprisoned, and they also received sentences for a variety of petty offenses. States began to lease convict labor to the plantations and other facilities seeking labor, as the ...