Preview

Mississippi Black Codes Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
373 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mississippi Black Codes Essay Example
1. All of the rights in the “Mississippi Black Code” are given similarly like backhanded compliments. There’s a right that’s given, but it’s most often fowllowed by a restriction of some sort. Freed black men and women basically only received the right to rent or lease land in incorporated towns, right to legally marry other freed black men and women, and the right to be considered competent witnesses. (6)

2. I believed that the laws continually referred to “freedman, free negroes, and mulattoes” so that they could be sure that they included everyone that was not white, like the men who wrote the laws. Even mulattoes are half white, yet they still were included in the black codes.

3. These black codes definitely restricted the freedom of African Americans in the 1860’s. All “freedman, Negroes, and mulattoes” were not able to marry or even be involved with a person that was white or else both parties woulf face serious consequences. They’re also not even allowed to bear arms, one of our original basic rights. The laws are only slightly different from the laws governing slaves. If an African American is not able to pay the fine that they owe, they’re forced into practically an “indentured servitude,” forced to work for a white man under extremely slave-like conditions. (6, 8)

4. Former masters are still slightly able to control their former slaves through the Mississippi Codes. They are able to be sure that African Americans don’t do certain things. Also, the codes also restrict the freedom of some white Mississippians. White Mississippians are not allowed to be involved with any freedman, Negro or mulattoe. They also were not allowed to sell, lend, etc. firearms to African Americans. (6,8)

5. It’s obvious that white Southerners were worried about what the end of slavery meant for them. They were completely, 100% against the end of slavery, and this is some sort of a “last effort” to keep the former slaves below them. The laws wanted postemancipation

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Apush Chapter 16 Readings

    • 1917 Words
    • 6 Pages

    7) Summary: In this passage written by Frederick Douglas who was an escaped slave that became known as the greatest Black abolitionist of the time for sharing his terrible experience as a slave in order to stop slavery, it discusses the cruel treatments that the slaves are expose to. For instance, if the slaves perform at a poor rate or produces insufficient work, their master would hit them with a whip as a symbol of punishment. Sometimes, the master doesn’t even need a reason to torment the slaves other than for his/her own satisfaction. In addition, Douglas who was a slave for the majority of his life, claims that the laws created by the Southern states were unfair since it was design to give the master full control over the slaves which took away their freedom. Moreover, Douglas supported his idea by repeating the same phrase and adding the different things that were restricted against the slaves such as earning a proper education, receiving good food/clothes, and working hard to make money. Furthermore, Douglas asserts that the physical cruelties that are brought upon the slaves are sufficiently harassing and revolting since it inflicts on the mental, moral and religious nature of the helpless victims. All of these reasons explain why Douglas…

    • 1917 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Black Codes for Mississippi were “originally created to help the freedmen”, whilst in reality this was a very different story. These laws took advantage of the freedmen by requiring them to be employed for at least a year. It also required “Blacks to present, each January, written proof of employment. The law defined violation of this requirement as vagrancy (homelessness), punishable by arrest—for which…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I think that black codes were an attempt at reestablishing slavery. They forced African-Americans to work. If they didn’t work or if they ran away from their job they would either be forced to return or go to jail. Since they had to go back to work they usually ended up back on plantations. States were allowed to decide on “separate but equal” laws, keeping blacks apart from whites. The Jim Crow laws end up enforcing segregation. Also African-Americans had to have a place to live and they usually couldn’t vote unless they had a grandfather that voted before the civil war. Southern whites wanted their slaves back. And this is the way they tried to do it.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    History 2057 Paper 1

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In response to the 13th Amendment, southern states still tried to maintain power over African-Americans by using certain techniques such as Black Codes. The Black Codes restricted African-Americans’ freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and legal rights; and outlawed unemployment, loitering, vagrancy, and interracial marriages.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chapter 9 Outline Apush

    • 2669 Words
    • 11 Pages

    4. Emancipated African Americans could be barred from purchasing property, holding certain jobs, and educating their children. They can’t have interracial marriage.…

    • 2669 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Among the disenfranchisement, Black people were discriminated against throughout the South through a series of ‘Black codes’. The Black codes were aimed to keep free Blacks as second-class citizens. Black codes regulated all activities and behavior of Black people. Free Blacks were prohibited from basic constitutional rights of assembling in groups, bearing arms, learning to read and write, free speech or to testify against white people in court. Black codes also restricted Backs to own property, conduct business, buy and lease land, and move freely through public spaces. The codes also criminalized Black men who were out of work or who were not working at a job whites recognized. These legalized discrimination laws kept the subordination of Blacks and maintained white supremacy throughout the South and rest of the…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An eight-year-old African American boy sat on the floor of his church. His mother and father were talking quietly in the corner. He only heard pieces of the conversation. Things like “abolitionist” and “segregation” were repeated often. Many questions ran through his head. Questions like ‘Why do the whites have separate churches?’ And ‘Why is my dad not allowed to practice medicine?’ There were 221,000 free blacks in the sixteen Northern states in 1860. That is 4.9% of the African American population. They were called “free”, but did they really have liberty? Free people act as they wish and are unimpeded by others telling them what to do. Based on the political, social and economic rights of blacks in the North, we can conclude that they were not very free in comparison to the whites around them.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilksbooth, which led Vice President Andrew Johnson to take over the role as president. In effect, this started the beginning of Johnson’s reconstruction plan. The reconstruction plan was to free the slaves and to try to rejoin the union in as little time as possible. This effected the African Americans in many different ways as their economic, social, and political patterns were changed drastically. Yet, some southern African Americans, didn’t always get the same equal rights. Which then began the “Black Codes” in the South. Former slaves had more freedom than before, but not as equal as the average white male.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Codes were a set of laws passed by the Southern States in the United States in 1865 and 1866 after slavery was abolished. Southern state legislatures adopted Black Codes that restricted the right and movements of the former slaves; this caused Republicans to become further disillusioned with President Johnson. Black Codes prohibited blacks from renting or borrowing money to buy land and also prohibited them from testifying against whites in court. They also denied blacks basic rights, and enforced state by state. The Black Codes also included the segregation of public spaces, prohibited blacks from learning how to read or write, marry whites, and kept them from being able create public gatherings. These codes were enacted because of economic…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to factual history, the state of Alabama passed the Alabama Slave Laws within the month of January in the year 1833. Andrew Jackson served as president for a second term. The organization of the laws, were divided into four sections, entitled “Slaves and free persons of color”, “costs and restitution”, “trial of persons of color”, and “Slave trade.” The concept of freedom for the enslaved made owners and the government of Alabama to form became a system upheld by fear and terror. These laws were not fair some include a number of lashings, floggings, and killings. Sexual exploitation was very common practice. Sexaul assult of the enslaved was not a crime because they were property, unless it was with another master’s someone else’s…

    • 125 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black people were not very free at all in the North because they were not allowed to complete basic tasks such as shopping, dining out, or buying land. If the title for free black people was “free blacks” than they should have actually been free. “We shall not make the black man a slave, we shall not buy him or sell him; but we will not associate with him” (Document B line 1,2,3). Black people should have been allowed to do some basic things, atleast shopping for food and clothes, or buying the land that they want. “No one will employ…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In late 1865, several of these Johnson-installed state legislatures passed laws known as “Black Codes.” These laws set up the terms for the newly freed Black population to participate in Reconstruction. They were in many ways precursors to the Jim Crow laws, creating a separate and unequal system for African Americans.…

    • 2371 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slaves’ codes were state laws established to determine the status of slaves and the rights of their owners. Slave Codes were an important constraint on the value of slaves (Yanochik, 2001). This kept slave from having the right to have possessed of a weapon, when it came to White people there was only 1 side to the story especially if it came down to a White woman. Enslave people could not travel without permission from their masters. Slave legal system affected not only the enslaved blacks, but the entire Southern culture and way of life. African Americans resist and make life difficult for slave-owners by learning how to read, formed the Underground Railroad, and pretending to be ill. Most slaves even separated family…

    • 152 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Black Codes. Although the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, the whole “freed blacks” was very much unresolved in the South. Now the white power structure in the South wanted to keep their way of life as close to what it was as possible, so under the mild Reconstruction policies of President Johnson they where able to reestablish order to the Confederate states with these codes. The Black Codes were designed to limit newly freed blacks’ activity so that they were available for work. For example a lot of states made sure that…

    • 1385 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    vagrant laws

    • 552 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The “Vagrant Law of the Mississippi Black Code was essentially designed to punish freed black slaves and mulattos from living their lives the way the seemed was right for them. Under the Codes freed slaves and mulattos were not allowed to be unemployed nor were they allowed to assemble together during the day or night. (Foner, pg. 8) The law of assembly was vague to say the least. There was no definition on what assembly was or how many freed black slaves could be in the same place before there was a violation. I can only assume that this was a way for the white men in charge to do what they wanted and legally oppress the free slaves. Punishment for such violations would come with a $50 fine which if not paid would allow a white employer to pay the fine and force the freed slave back into slave labor until the fine was paid.…

    • 552 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays