Black Codes

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Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern state goverments under the Johnson Reconstruction Plan.
 
Also known as Black Laws. State and local laws regulating the behavior and status of free blacks, before, during and after the Civil War (laws governing slaves were called slave codes). Under such laws, blacks were generally prevented from bearing arms, meeting in unsupervised groups or testifying in court unless party to a legal action. Such laws also specified harsher legal penalties for blacks than for whites, criminal rather than civil liability for some actions (such as breaking labor contracts), discriminatory vagrancy laws and forced "apprenticeships" for black children, which were little better than slavery. From: "Everyday Life During The Civil War". by Michael J. Varhola page 33.
 
The term "Black Code" is often used in reference to the postwar south, but there were similar restrictions in many northern states, especially in the midwest. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes_(United_States):

"Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated "No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution." The 1848 Constitution of Illinois led to one of the harshest Black Code systems in the nation until the Civil War. The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against black immigration into the state."
 
Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern state goverments under the Johnson Reconstruction Plan.

This is the first time I've seen the term "Black Codes" applied specifically to the post-War era. I have seen the term applied to any laws established for the unequal treatment of blacks compared to whites, and of course these laws precede the Civil War.

The etymology for the term seems to stem from France's "Code Noir," which is described in Wiki:

The Code noir (French pronunciation: [kɔd nwaʁ], Black Code) was a decree originally passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685.The Code Noir defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire, restricted the activities of free Negroes, forbade the exercise of any religion other than Roman Catholicism (it included a provision that all slaves must be baptized and instructed in the Roman Catholic religion), and ordered all Jews out of France's colonies. The Code Noir also gave plantation owners extreme disciplinary power over their slaves, including legitimizing corporal punishment as a method of maintaining control. The code has been described by Tyler Stovall as "one of the most extensive official documents on race, slavery, and freedom ever drawn up in Europe."[1]

- Alan
 
The term "Black Code" is often used in reference to the postwar south, but there were similar restrictions in many northern states, especially in the midwest. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes_(United_States):

"Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated "No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution." The 1848 Constitution of Illinois led to one of the harshest Black Code systems in the nation until the Civil War. The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against black immigration into the state."

The laws passed in the Southern states were far more restrictive. They went beyond forbidding free blacks from entering the state - such laws had been in effect in all the Southern states even before the rebellion - but restricted where blacks could go, where they could live, what they could work in, required they have employment contracts, placed severe penalties on any transgressions, and so on and so forth. The purpose of the Black Codes were to return all blacks to a situation as closely resembling slavery as possible, even for blacks who had been free for decades.
 
"Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated "No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution." The 1848 Constitution of Illinois led to one of the harshest Black Code systems in the nation until the Civil War. The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against black immigration into the state."

The suppression of an entire people because of their race is the great shame of America. The war ended slavery, but it didn't end racism. Often, people perceive the Jim Crow laws as an attempt to recreate some aspects of the old slave system in the South. That's a reasonable way of looking at it, but it doesn't account for similar laws in other areas, nor does it account for the popularity of the KKK up through the 1920's in parts of the Midwest.

Do you know if such laws as the Indiana law you've posted here continued after the war? Were they repealed? It would seem that having sent so many boys to emancipate slavery that there would have been less support for such laws? Just curious.
 
The term "Black Code" is often used in reference to the postwar south, but there were similar restrictions in many northern states, especially in the midwest. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes_(United_States):

"Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated "No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution." The 1848 Constitution of Illinois led to one of the harshest Black Code systems in the nation until the Civil War. The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against black immigration into the state."

What evidence is presented regarding the relative harshness of state codes restricting blacks? Is there, for example, a line by line comparison to the Alabama code enacted at roughly the same time? What about Illinois makes it worse?
 
Just looking at the census data, I have question the stated effectiveness of the Illinois law. The number of free blacks in Illinois increased 40% from 1850 to 1860. In raw numbers, 5436 to 7628.
 
Do you know if such laws as the Indiana law you've posted here continued after the war? Were they repealed?

I don't know that much about it, but the 14th Amendment - equal protection under the law - superseded any formal legal restrictions, though there still managed to be Jim Crow laws and practices, again not just in the south.

It would seem that having sent so many boys to emancipate slavery that there would have been less support for such laws?

Opposing slavery didn't necessarily mean wanting to live side by side with blacks on an equal basis. A lot of people wished the problem - and the blacks - would just go away, literally; there were proposals to send them "back" to Africa or to colonize some place in Central or South America, advocated by Abraham Lincoln among others.
 
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