Table of Contents
What was the purpose of the Black Codes?
1 Overview. When slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War, southern states created black codes, laws which aimed to keep white supremacy in place. 2 Black codes. As the Civil War came to a close, southern states began to pass a series of discriminatory state laws collectively known as black codes. 3 The rise of radical Republicanism.
How did the Reconstruction Act affect the Black Codes?
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 weakened the effect of the black codes by requiring all states to uphold equal protection under the 14 th Amendment, particularly by enabling black men to vote. (U.S. law prevented women of any race from voting in federal elections until 1920.)
What did the Black Code and Jim Crow laws do?
Vocabulary. Black codes and Jim Crow laws were laws passed at different periods in the southern United States to enforce racial segregation and curtail the power of black voters. After the Civil War ended in 1865, some states passed black codes that severely limited the rights of black people, many of whom had been enslaved.
Why did the southern states pass Black Codes?
In 1865 and 1866 southern states pass “Black Codes” which were laws to restrict the freedom of Blacks in the region. In the north these codes were viewed as a way to get around the 13th amendment and to allow slavery to exist under a different name.
Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War. Though the Union victory had given some 4 million slaves their freedom, the question of freed blacks’ status in the postwar South was still very much unresolved.
What was the first state to pass a Black Code?
States legalized Black marriages and in some cases increased the rights of freedmen to own property and conduct commerce. Mississippi was the first state to pass Black Codes. Its laws served as a model for those passed by other states, beginning with South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana in 1865,…
Why did Illinois pass the Black Codes in 1848?
Just two years earlier, the Illinois legislature passed the “Black Codes” following a directive of the 1848 state constitution to “pass such laws as will effectively prohibit free persons of color from immigrating to and settling in this state.”