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- Oct 22, 2014
Although the 1865 Thirteenth Amendment freed the slaves they did not become safely recognized as citizens until the 1868 Fourteenth Amendment. During the interval their status was ambiguous from a constitutional viewpoint since the 1857 Dred Scott decision ruled that they were not be citizens.
During the early part of the three-year gap some of the former Confederate states felt compelled to adopt Black Codes as a means of legally defining the rights and responsibilities of former slaves. Some of the Codes, particularly in Mississippi and South Carolina where Blacks represented over half the population, were excessively numerous and restrictive. Consequently, Northern Republicans condemned them.
But where did they come from? Some were modeled after the vagrancy and racially restrictive laws sometimes found among the free states.* California's legal shackles on Chinese residents might have been one example.
Due to California laws, throughout the 1850s and 1860s Chinese were:
Sources: John Sonnichsen, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, (Santa Barbara, CA.: Greenwood Press, 2011) Kindle Locations, 300-03
* Francis Simpkins and Charles Roland, A History of the South: Fourth Edition, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 260; Hodding Carter, The Angry Scar (New York: Doubleday, 1959), 51
During the early part of the three-year gap some of the former Confederate states felt compelled to adopt Black Codes as a means of legally defining the rights and responsibilities of former slaves. Some of the Codes, particularly in Mississippi and South Carolina where Blacks represented over half the population, were excessively numerous and restrictive. Consequently, Northern Republicans condemned them.
But where did they come from? Some were modeled after the vagrancy and racially restrictive laws sometimes found among the free states.* California's legal shackles on Chinese residents might have been one example.
Due to California laws, throughout the 1850s and 1860s Chinese were:
1. Denied the right to own land or property.
2. Unable to marry whites.
3. Unable to attend public schools.
4. Unable to enter within the official limits of some cities and towns.
5. Denied employment in public works projects.
6. Denied the right to fish in California waters.
7. Denied the right to testify as a witness in which a white person was a party.
8. Denied the right to bear arms.
During the applicable period, California's Chinese residents totaled less than 10% of the state's population. It is a fearful prospect to speculate how much more prohibitive California's "Chinese Codes" might have been if the Asian minority had represented 40% of the state's population as Blacks did in the former Confederate states. Gosh, just imagine how much more virulent they might have been if California's Chinese represented over half of the state's population as did Blacks in Mississippi and South Carolina.2. Unable to marry whites.
3. Unable to attend public schools.
4. Unable to enter within the official limits of some cities and towns.
5. Denied employment in public works projects.
6. Denied the right to fish in California waters.
7. Denied the right to testify as a witness in which a white person was a party.
8. Denied the right to bear arms.
Sources: John Sonnichsen, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, (Santa Barbara, CA.: Greenwood Press, 2011) Kindle Locations, 300-03
* Francis Simpkins and Charles Roland, A History of the South: Fourth Edition, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 260; Hodding Carter, The Angry Scar (New York: Doubleday, 1959), 51
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