Reconstruction Era Law and Society

Questions and Answers

To ensure the economic and social equality of freedmen.

To provide freedmen with opportunities for education and advancement.

To reestablish antebellum power relationships and control Black behavior. (correct)

To protect the rights of former Confederate soldiers.

The right to marry.

The right to serve on juries. (correct)

The right to make contracts.

The right to own property.

They led to the widespread imprisonment of African Americans. (correct)

They ensured the fair treatment of all citizens, regardless of race.

They provided freedmen with legal protection against exploitation.

They encouraged economic growth and prosperity for all.

They restricted their movement by criminalizing leisure and requiring proof of employment. Signup and view all the answers

Black Codes were essentially a continuation of slavery under a different guise. Signup and view all the answers

Black Codes created a system of economic inequality that favored white landowners. Signup and view all the answers

To maintain white supremacy and limit the rights of freedmen. Signup and view all the answers

Black Codes were a form of re-enslavement that severely restricted the rights and freedoms of African Americans. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Southern governments passed laws to reestablish pre-Civil War power relationships, restricting African Americans' rights and freedoms.
Black Codes were enacted in South Carolina, Mississippi, and other states to regulate Black behavior and impose social and economic control.

Granted some rights to African Americans, including:
- Right to own property
- Right to marry
- Right to make contracts
Denied fundamental rights, including:
- Serving on juries
- Serving in state militias
- Recognition of Black testimony against white people

Mississippi's vagrant law required freedmen to carry papers proving employment, or face arrest and fines.
If unable to pay the fine, prisoners could be hired out to anyone willing to pay the tax.
Similar laws throughout the South reestablished control over Black labor, effectively criminalizing Black people's leisure and limiting their mobility.
Black Codes led to exploitative farming contracts, locking many African Americans into forced labor.

Reasserted control over Black labor, effectively reinstating "slavery by another name".
Successfully restored the antebellum economic order, restricting African Americans' social and economic mobility.