- Key People:
- Andrew Johnson
- Related Topics:
- United States
- African Americans
- slave code
- On the Web:
- World History Encyclopedia - Black Codes: Slavery Under a New Name During Reconstruction (Nov. 07, 2026)
Black Codes
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What were the Black Codes?
The Black Codes were laws enacted in the former Confederate states after the American Civil War, designed to maintain white supremacy. These codes aimed to control the labor and behavior of formerly enslaved African Americans, replacing the social controls of slavery, which the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment had ended.
Though varying by state, the Black Codes ensured a cheap labor supply and assumed Black people's racial inferiority. Vagrancy laws allowed for the arrest and fining of unemployed Black individuals, who could then be forced into labor if they couldn't pay the fine. Other restrictions included limiting property ownership, excluding Black people from certain businesses and skilled trades, prohibiting firearm possession, and restricting court testimony to cases involving only Black people. The Black Codes were later replaced by Jim Crow laws, which were abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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When and where were the Black Codes created?
The Black Codes were enacted in 1865 and 1866 in the states of the former Confederacy, following the American Civil War. These laws were intended to maintain white supremacy by replacing the social controls of slavery, which the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment had ended. Though the Black Codes varied by state, they aimed to secure a cheap labor supply and assumed Black people's racial and social inferiority. Vagrancy laws, for example, declared unemployed Black people without permanent residence as vagrant, leading to fines and forced labor. Though Reconstruction efforts and subsequent constitutional amendments initially abolished the Black Codes, many provisions resurfaced as Jim Crow laws after Reconstruction ended in 1877.
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Who did the Black Codes affect the most?
The Black Codes, enacted in the former Confederate states after the Civil War, were intended to maintain white supremacy by replacing the social controls of slavery, which the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment had ended.
These codes aimed to secure a cheap labor supply and assumed Black people's racial and social inferiority. The Black Codes affected formerly enslaved people the most, through vagrancy laws, apprentice laws, and exclusions from certain property rights, businesses, and trades. They also faced restrictions on bearing firearms and testifying in court (except in cases involving other Black people). Though legal marriage between African Americans was provided for, interracial marriage was prohibited.
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What were some restrictions or rules found in the Black Codes?
The Black Codes were laws enacted in the Southern states after the Civil War with the intent to maintain white supremacy. These codes aimed to control the labor and behavior of formerly enslaved people.
Examples of Black Codes:
* Vagrancy laws: Declared Black individuals vagrant if unemployed or without permanent residence, leading to fines and forced labor.
* Apprentice laws: Allowed Black orphans and young dependents to be "hired out" to white people, potentially their former enslavers.
* Restrictions on property ownership: Limited the types of property African Americans could own.
* Exclusion from certain businesses: Barred Black people from specific businesses or skilled trades.
* Firearm restrictions: Forbade formerly enslaved people from carrying firearms.
* Testimony restrictions: Prevented Black people from testifying in court, except in cases involving other Black people.
* Marriage laws: Legalized marriage between African Americans but prohibited interracial marriage.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why did Southern states create the Black Codes after the Civil War?
Following the Civil War, Southern states enacted Black Codes to maintain white supremacy and control the newly freed African Americans. These laws aimed to replace the social controls of slavery, securing a cheap labor supply while assuming Black people's inferiority.
Black Codes included vagrancy laws that punished unemployment with fines and forced labor. Other provisions restricted property ownership, excluded Black people from certain trades, prohibited firearm possession, and limited court testimony. Though legal marriage between African Americans was allowed, interracial marriage was banned.
Northern outrage over the Black Codes and white mob attacks led to Radical Reconstruction, as well as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Although Reconstruction ended the Black Codes, many provisions resurfaced as Jim Crow laws until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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How did the Black Codes influence later laws and the rights of African Americans?
The Black Codes, enacted in the former Confederate states post-Civil War, aimed to maintain white supremacy by controlling the labor and limiting the rights of formerly enslaved people. These codes served as a replacement for the social controls of slavery, restricting African Americans' property ownership, business opportunities, and legal rights, such as testifying in court.
Northern outrage over the Black Codes, along with events like the Memphis and New Orleans massacres, fueled the Radical Reconstruction era (1867–77). This period saw the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, in efforts to protect Black Americans. Although Reconstruction ended the Black Codes, many provisions resurfaced as Jim Crow laws until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Black Codes, in U.S. history, the numerous laws adopted in the states of the former Confederacy after the American Civil War that were intended to maintain white supremacy in those places. Enacted in 1865 and 1866, the Black Codes were designed to replace the social controls previously exerted over Black Americans by slavery, which was ended through the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Black Codes had their roots in the so-called slave codes that had formerly been in effect in Southern states. The premise behind chattel slavery in America was that enslaved people were property and, as such, had few or no legal rights. The slave codes, in their many loosely defined forms, were seen as effective tools against rebellions and other efforts by enslaved people to gain freedom. Enforcement of slave codes varied across the South, but corporal punishment and other forms of physical violence were widely and harshly employed.
The Black Codes enacted immediately after the Civil War, though varying from state to state, were all intended to secure a steady supply of cheap labor, and all continued to assume the racial and social inferiority of formerly enslaved people. There were vagrancy laws that declared a Black person to be vagrant if unemployed and without permanent residence; a person so defined could be arrested, fined, and bound out for a term of labor if unable to pay the fine. Portions of a vagrancy law enacted by the state legislature of Mississippi in 1865 provide an example:
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Section 2. Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes in this state over the age of eighteen years found on the second Monday in January 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together either in the day- or nighttime, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants; and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in the sum of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, $150, and a white man, $200, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, the free Negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.
Section 5. Be it further enacted, that all fines and forfeitures collected under the provisions of this act shall be paid into the county treasury for general county purposes; and in case any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto shall fail for five days after the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon him or her for violation of any of the provisions of this act to pay the same, that it shall be, and is hereby made, the duty of the sheriff of the proper county to hire out said freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to any person who will, for the shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and all costs.
Apprentice laws provided for the “hiring out” of Black orphans and other young dependents to white people, who sometimes had previously been their enslavers. Some states limited the type of property African Americans could own, and in other states Black people were excluded from certain businesses or from skilled trades. Formerly enslaved people were forbidden to carry firearms, and they were not allowed to testify in court, except in cases concerning other Black people. Legal marriage between African Americans was provided for, but interracial marriage was prohibited.
It was Northern reaction to the Black Codes—as well as to the Memphis massacre and the New Orleans massacre, both of which were attacks by white mobs on Black residents of those cities in 1866—that helped produce Radical Reconstruction (1867–77) and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Freedmen’s Bureau, created in 1865, was another effort by the federal government to help formerly enslaved people.
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Reconstruction did away with the Black Codes, but, after Reconstruction ended in 1877, many of their provisions were reenacted by Southern states through Jim Crow laws, which were not finally done away with until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.