Unit
Years: 1865-1877
Culture & Community
Economy & Society
Freedom & Equal Rights
Historical Events, Movements, and Figures
Prior to this lesson, students should be familiar with the precipitating events that led to the Civil War along with the intra-party divisions among moderate and “Radical” Republican politicians regarding the future of African Americans’ civil rights. Students should also understand the pre-war role of enslaved people’s labor in the U.S. economy, both regionally in the South and also as it related to Northern manufacturing and industry and global markets. The debate regarding the balance of congressional power between “slave” and “free” states should also be understood, set off as it was by the westward expansion of the United States across North America. This is significant for students’ understanding of the questions regarding Congressional representation between states. Lastly, students should understand that the Union and the Republican party did not have a consensus regarding the post-war status of freedpeople and that it was not evidently understood that formerly enslaved people would assume full citizenship rights.
You may want to consider after teaching this lesson: The Freedman’s Bureau Voting & Representation
President Andrew Johnson’s approach towards reconstructing the Union and the uncertainty around freedpeople’s legal status enabled former Confederate states to pass laws, known as the Black Codes, which attempted to legally codify freedpeople’s subservient status in Southern states. The Black Codes were one of the key catalysts for Republican-led action in Congress that enshrined freedpeople’s status as U.S. citizens with equal protection under the law.
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865 only six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered during the Civil War. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice president, thus became president of the United States at a pivotal moment in reconstructing the Union. His choice as the vice president was an intentional one. When Republican President Abraham Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, he chose the Tennessee-born Democrat, Andrew Johnson, to serve as his Vice President. While Tennessee had seceded and joined the Confederacy, Johnson remained loyal to the Union.
In this post-war context of governance, the legal status of freedpeople was an open question. The Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery and freed formerly enslaved people but did not go so far as to grant citizenship rights, such as the right to vote.
Surprising the nation, President Johnson instead of supporting Congress in efforts to codify these rights, instead allowed for lenient treatment of former Confederate states in his approach to Reconstruction. Johnson ignored and vetoed Congress as he promoted his own governing policies to reconstruct the Union, arguing that “White men alone must manage the South.”. Johnson allowed former Confederate states to return to the Union once they wrote new state constitutions that ratified the Thirteenth Amendment–abolishing slavery–and denouncing secession. Johnson also granted amnesty to former Confederate officials, if they took an oath of loyalty to the Union and accepted the end of slavery. He also allowed opportunities for both high ranking Confederates and large plantation owners and former enslavers to apply for pardons.
Further limiting the rights of African Americans, Johnson only allowed people who were eligible to vote before the Civil War to vote on new state constitutions. This meant that freed African Americans could not participate, once again concentrating power in the hands of White Southerners who defended slavery and secession. Therefore when the southern states held elections throughout the summer of 1865 the new state governments were dominated by White Southerners and what was meant to be a time for political reform in formerly Confederate Southern states, did not benefit the civil rights of African American people.
Southern state legislatures filled this legal void with their own legislation, known collectively as Black Codes. These laws began to be passed in 1868. The laws differed across states but offered a combination of minimal citizenship rights while also asserting the dominance of Southern state legislatures over African American people. Across the ideological spectrum in the North, there was opposition to these Black Codes even though many Northern states continued denying African American people the right to vote, serve in juries, or marry non-Black citizens. To many Northerners, Black Codes were an attempt to use the legislative power granted under Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction to reinstitute a condition that closely resembled slavery and defied the outcome of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Black Codes were met with resistance from Republicans, the Freedmen’s Bureau and even the Army. Despite President’s Johnson’s opposition, eventually the Republican-controlled Congress was able to pass the Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867. The acts were intended to formally reorganize the Southern states that had seceded from the Union and to establish conditions for their readmission into the United States. Under these acts, the former Confederate states (except for Tennessee) were to be taken out of the Union and placed under the temporary rule of military governors. The Acts therefore allowed for the creation of a new constitution that provided for universal male suffrage, the ratification of the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship rights and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves and military oversight, intended to protect African American rights and prevent resistance from white supremacist groups. By 1868, the Black Codes were no longer existent as Republicans in Congress used the Military Reconstruction Acts to take away power from Southern state legislatures.
Despite their brief legal status, Black Codes served as evidence of the Southern states ongoing attempts to minimize and deny rights to freedpeople by subordinating them to the status of laborers with little agency over their futures. The codes were therefore a catalyst for addressing the ambiguity around the citizenship status and civil rights of freedpeople. The Republican response to Black Codes marked the end of President Johnson’s vision of Reconstruction and ushered in an era of Congressional Reconstruction and federal policies with more emphasis on codifying the rights of freedpeople. This more assertive set of policies led to the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment which granted citizenship rights and equal protection under the law to freedpeople.
Video: Presidential Reconstruction, NBC News Learn.
Video: Black Codes, NBC News Learn.
Video: The Thirteenth Amendment and Black Codes, Center for Civic Education.
Video and Lesson Plans: The Black Codes, PBS LearningMedia.
Video, Interactive Timeline, and Teaching Resources: Slavery by Another Name, PBS.
This lesson begins by examining political compromises made by the Johnson Administration for the sake of expediting the restoration of the Union after the Civil War, compromises that created space for former Confederate states to systematically restrict the rights of freedpeople despite the newfound illegality of chattel slavery. It continues by introducing the ratification of Black Codes in Southern states. These topics may raise questions with students about the existence of “unjust laws” and the role of government in perpetuating and codifying racist attitudes and structures.
Throughout the lesson, students will encounter examples of ways recently freed African Americans had their civil rights restricted through legislative means. They will also encounter the language used by those who justified the existence of Black Codes, based on racist attitudes. In many instances this is both racial slurs and racist language (ex. negro, mulatto). It is important that you approach the use of resources from a trauma- informed stance and give students a content warning before distributing the articles. We recommend having a conversation with students about the ways in which the language we use about race has changed and to clarify that students should be mindful with language that they use to discuss the past, when terms, such as negro or colored, differ from what is most appropriate to use today. Additionally, teaching students about the way laws have been used to enable racial inequality entails asking them to confront the way power and government may be misused in order to preserve a state of White supremacy. Successfully broaching such emotionally-charged content requires understanding your students, their intellectual and emotional needs, and engaging this history with empathy and care.
Within the activities there are all sources that include racist language or images that need to be treated with sensitivity. These historical expressions of racism are included in order to help students recognize and understand the ongoing influence of White supremacist ideology after enslavement. However, it is imperative that these be shared with students with great care, as they can trigger painful emotions in students, such as anger, sadness, fear, and shame. African American students may feel that their identity is under attack. Moreover, if not examined critically, these sources can perpetuate anti-Black ideas. Use the guidelines below when sharing racist content with students.
When Republican President Abraham Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864 during the American Civil War, he chose the Tennessee-born Democrat, Andrew Johnson to serve as his Vice President. While Tennessee seceded and joined the Confederacy, Johnson remained loyal to the Union. Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865 only six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered, making Johnson president of the United States at a pivotal moment in reconstructing the Union.
President Johnson surprised the nation with his approach to Reconstruction. Johnson was a defender of states’ rights and ignored Congress in favor of his own policies to reconstruct the Union. The Thirteenth Amendment had ended slavery and freed formerly enslaved people but did not go so far as to grant citizenship rights to these four million people. In this post-war context of a new presidential administration and tensions regarding the process of reconstructing a deeply divided country, the legal status of freedpeople was an open question. This legal void meant that there was an opportunity for former Confederate Southern states to determine the legal status of freedpeople.
What emerged were laws, known as Black Codes. These pieces of legislature were passed by Southern state legislatures. The codes defined the legal status of freedpeople and determined the extent to which they had rights and responsibilities as citizens. These Black Codes became a source of national tension and controversy.
As different visions for Reconstruction emerged between President Johnson and Congress, Black Codes were at the center of political debates and motivated debate over the future legal status and rights afforded to freedpeople in a reconstructed United States.
Select the activities and sources you would like to include in the student view and click “Launch Student View.”
It is highly recommended that you review the Teaching Tips and sources before selecting the activities to best meet the needs and readiness of your students. Activities may utilize resources or primary sources that contain historical expressions of racism, outdated language or racial slurs.
If not previously reviewed, have students read the first two paragraphs of the Student Context to develop content knowledge to engage in this activity.
As a class, read through Andrew Johnson’s 1865 “Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon.” The proclamation language is dense and may prove challenging so begin by guiding students through the text, reading the first two paragraphs out loud. After each sentence, call on a volunteer to rephrase in their own words. Write the revised version on a dry erase board, smartboard, or chart paper so that students may have access to a more accessible and jointly written version.
Next, have students turn and talk to a partner, explaining their own understandings of the paragraph. Call on volunteers to share. Students should be able to explain that President Johnson was allowing some–but not all–former Confederates to return to the Union and have their property–except for formerly enslaved people–returned to them if they were willing to swear an oath to the Constitution and honor the emancipation of formerly enslaved people. Have students also discuss and reflect on the following questions:
“Why do you think President Johnson would grant amnesty and pardons to former Confederates?
What does that reveal about his goals for Reconstruction?
What do you think could be possible consequences of this action?”
Next, have students remain in conversation with a partner, assigning each pair one of the fourteen listed “classes of persons” who were declared ineligible for this pardon and amnesty along with the final two paragraphs of the proclamation, which state that even ineligible persons may apply for and receive clemency. Pairs should discuss the following question before sharing their thoughts to the whole class:
“Why do you think that President Johnson did not extend amnesty to this class of people?
What does Johnson’s willingness to offer clemency to this class of people imply about his approach to Reconstruction?”
Conclude this activity by engaging in an open discussion of President Johnson’s approach to Reconstruction.
As an additional extension you may opt to screen the first minute and thirty seconds of President Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan and have students engage in an open discussion of the film’s analysis of President Johnson’s approach to Reconstruction. Focus specifically on historian Eric Foner’s insistence that Johnson was “lenient” in his treatment of former Confederates. Ask students, “Why would Eric Foner consider President Johnson’s approach to Reconstruction lenient and why would leniency be seen as a problem?”
Andrew Johnson became President of the United States when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April of 1865. Johnson, a Tennessean of humble origins, was widely known for disliking the wealthy planter class of the South. Many Americans believed that, upon obtaining the presidency, Johnson would work to punish the planters for bringing the nation to Civil War in defense of slavery. Johnson surprised them.
I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do proclaim and declare that I hereby grant to all persons who have, directly or indirectly, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves and except in cases where legal proceedings under the laws of the United States providing for the confiscation of property of persons engaged in rebellion have been instituted; but upon the condition, nevertheless, that every such person shall take and subscribe the following oath (or affirmation) and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:
I ___________ do solemnly swear (or affirm); in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.
The following classes of persons are excepted from the benefits of this proclamation:
First, all who are or shall have been pretended civil or diplomatic officers or otherwise domestic or foreign agents of the pretended Confederate Government.
Second, all who left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion.
Third, all who shall have been military or naval officers of said pretended Confederate government above the rank of colonel in the army or lieutenant in the navy.
Fourth, all who left seats in the Congress of the United States to aid the rebellion.
Fifth, all who resigned or tendered resignations of their commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States to evade duty in resisting the rebellion.
Sixth, all who have engaged in any way in treating otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war persons found in the United States service as officers, soldiers, seamen, or in other capacities.
Seventh, all persons who have been or are absentees from the United States for the purpose of aiding the rebellion.
Eighth, all military and naval officers in the Rebel service who were educated by the government in the Military Academy at West Point or the United States Naval Academy.
Ninth, all persons who held the pretended offices of governors of states in insurrection against the United States.
Tenth, all persons who left their homes within the jurisdiction and protection of the United States and passed beyond the Federal in military lines into the pretended Confederate States for the purpose of aiding the rebellion.
Eleventh, all persons who have been engaged in the destruction of the commerce of the United States upon the high seas and all persons who have made raids into the United States from Canada or been engaged in destroying the commerce of the United States upon the lakes and rivers that separate the British Provinces from the United States.
Twelfth, all persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits hereof by taking the oath herein prescribed, are in military naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under bonds of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offenses of any kind, either before or after conviction.
Thirteenth, all persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion and the estimated value of whose taxable property is over 520,000.
Fourteenth, all persons who have taken the oath of amnesty as prescribed in the President's Proclamation of December 8, 1863, Or an oath of allegiance to the government of the United States since the date of said proclamation and who have not thenceforward kept and maintained the same inviolate.
Provided, that special application may be made to the President for pardon by any person belonging, to the excepted classes, and such clemency will be liberally extended as may be consistent with the facts of the case and the peace and dignity of the United States.
The secretary of state will establish rules and regulations for administering, and recording the said amnesty oath, so as to insure its benefit to the people and guard the government against fraud.
If not previously reviewed, have students read the third paragraph of the Student Context to develop content knowledge to engage in this activity. Expand on that reading by further, explaining to the class that President Johnson’s lenient approach to Reconstruction allowed former Confederates leaders to reclaim power in Southern states and that the civil rights and citizenship status of formerly enslaved African Americans was unclear and legally unguaranteed at the end of the Civil War. This meant that state legislatures in Southern states were empowered to pass laws specifying the legal rights afforded to African American people, despite the fact that many of these lawmakers were former enslavers or sympathetic to the defense of chattel slavery. Tell students that these legislative acts are collectively referred to as Black Codes.
Divide the class into seven groups for a Jigsaw activity, with each group reading the Black Codes from one or two states and completing the Analysis of Black Codes Handout.
In the first round of the jigsaw activity, have each group answer the following questions:
Once students have read and discussed, create new groupings in a jigsaw fashion so that each new grouping includes at least one student representing each of the original group configurations. Have students discuss the questions, “Why would former Confederate states pass these laws under President Johnson’s Reconstruction? What would these laws mean for the future opportunities and social standing of freedpeople in the South?”
Finally, recognizing the emotional impact of this activity you may also opt to allow time for students to share their personal reflections on the Black Code that they read, focusing on their intuitive reaction and how they would respond or “talk back” to the ethical and legal implications to those drafting the codes.
All freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes shall have the right to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all the different and various courts of this State, to the same extent that white persons now have by law. And they shall be competent to testify only in open court, and only in cases in which freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes are parties, either plaintiff or defendant. . . .
The following persons are vagrants, in addition to those already declared to be vagrants by law. . . . A stubborn or refractory servant; a laborer or servant who loiters away his time, or refuses to comply with any contract for any term of service without just cause. . . .
When any person shall be convicted of vagrancy as provided for in this act, the justice of the peace may, at his discretion, either commit such person to jail, to the house of correction, or hire such person to any person who will hire the same for a period not longer than six months for cash; and the proceeds of such hiring, after paying all costs and charges, shall be paid into the county treasury for the benefit of the helpless in the poor house. . . .
It shall be the duty of the sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State to report to the probate courts all minors under the age of eighteen years, who are orphans, without visible means of support, or whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse to provide for and support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of said probate court to apprentice said minor to some suitable and competent person. If said minor be a child of a freedman, the former owner of said minor shall have the preference, when proof shall be made that he or she shall be a suitable person for that purpose.
It shall not be lawful for any person to interfere with, hire, employ, or entice away, or induce to leave the service of another, any laborer or servant, who shall have stipulated or contracted in writing to serve for any given number of days, weeks or months.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 170-72.
It shall not be lawful for any negro, mulatto, or other person of color to own, use, or keep in his possession, or under his control, any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, fire-arms, or ammunition of any kind, unless he first obtain a license to do so from the judge of probate of the county in which he may be a resident for the time being.
If any negro, mulatto, or other person of color shall intrude himself into any religious or other public assembly of white persons, or into any railroad car or other public vehicle set apart for the exclusive accommodation of white people, he shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be sentence to stand in the pillory for one hour, or be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes.
When any person of color shall enter into a contract to serve as a laborer, if he shall refuse or neglect to perform the stipulations of his contract by wilful disobedience of orders, wanton impudence, or disrespect to his employer or his authorized agent, failure or refusal to perform the work assigned him, idleness or abandonment of the premises of the employment of the party with whom the contract was made, he or she shall be liable upon complaint of his employer or his agent, to be arrested and tried before the criminal court of the county, and upon conviction shall be subject to all the pains and penalties prescribed for the punishment of vagrancy.
If any person shall entice, induce, or otherwise persuade any laborer or employee to quit the services of another to which he was bound by contract, before the expiration of the term of service stipulated in the said contract, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
If any white female resident within this State shall hereafter attempt to intermarry, or shall live in a state of adultery or fornication, with any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, she shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. If any negro, mulatto, or other person of color shall hereafter live in a state of adultery or fornication with any white female resident of this State, he shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 174-76.
Free persons of color shall be competent witnesses in all the courts of this State, in civil cases whereto a free person of color is a party, and in all criminal cases wherein a free person of color is defendant, or wherein the offence charged is a crime or misdemeanor against the person or property of a free person of color.
If any officer shall knowingly issue any marriage license to parties either or whom is of African descent and the other a white person, such office shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. If any office, or minister of the Gospel, shall marry such persons together, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
All minors may, by whichever parent has the control of them, be bound out as apprentices to any respectable person until they attain the age of twenty-one, or for a shorter period. To the master shall belong the proceeds of the apprentice’s labor; but at the expiration of his term of service, a faithful apprentice shall be entitled to a small allowance from the master with which to begin life; the amount to be left in the first instance to the master’s generosity.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 179-81.
All persons engaged as laborers in agricultural pursuits shall be required, within the first ten days of the month of January of each year, to make contracts for labor for the then ensuing year.
All labor contracts shall be made with the heads of families; they shall embrace the labor of all the members of the family able to work, and shall be binding on all minors of said families.
When in health the laborer shall work ten hours during the day in summer and nine hours during the day in winter. He shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent; take proper care of his work mules, horses, oxen, stock; also all agricultural implements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from the laborer’s wages for injuries done to animals or agricultural implements committed to his care, or for bad or negligent work.
Failing to obey reasonable order, neglect of duty, and leaving home without permission will be deemed disobedience; impudence, swearing, or indecent language to, or in the presence of, the employer, his family, or agent, or quarreling and fighting with one another shall be deemed disobedience.
It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to carry fire-arms on the premises or plantations of any citizens without the consent of the owner or proprietor.
Any one who shall persuade or entice away, feed, harbor, or secret any person who leaves his or her employer, with whom she or he has contracted or is assigned to live, or any apprentice who is bound as an apprentice, without the permission of his or her employer, said person or persons so offending shall be liable for damages to the employer.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 181-87.
If any free negro intermarry with any white woman, or if any white man shall intermarry with any negro woman, on conviction thereof such negro shall become a slave during life, and such white man or white woman who shall so intermarry shall become servants during the term of seven years.
No negro or mulatto, whether free or slave, and no Indian, shall be admitted as evidence in any matter depending in any court, or before any justice of the peace, where any white person is concerned. Any negro or mulatto, whether slave or free, may be a witness for or against any negro or mulatto, slave or free, in any proceeding whatever.
Apprenticeship laws
The several orphans’ courts of this State shall, upon information being given to them, summon before them the child of any free negro, and if it shall appear upon examination before such court that it would be better for the habits and comfort of such child that it should be bound as an apprentice to some white person, if a male till he is of the age of twenty-one years, or if a female till she is of the age of eighteen years.
If any negro, or other person, shall entice or persuade any negro apprentice to run away or abscond from the service of the master, such negro or other person so offending shall be subject to fine and imprisonment.
If any negro abscond, or run away, the orphans’ court of the county shall have full power to adjudge and order such apprentice to serve further time, after the expiration of the period for which such apprentice may be bound, as will compensate the master or person entitled to the service for all loss occasioned by such running away.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 187-90.
Laws of contract
Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of five dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery; and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a set off for so much against the wages of said deserting employee.
Upon affidavit made by the employer of any freedman, free negro or mulatto, or other credible person, before any justice of the peace or member of the board of police, that any freedman, free negro or mulatto legally employed by said employer has illegally deserted said employment, such justice of the peace or member of the board of police issue his warrant or warrants, returnable before himself or other such officer, to any sheriff, constable or special deputy, commanding him to arrest said deserter, and return him or her to said employer.
If any person shall persuade or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro or mulatto to desert from the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free negro or mullato, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman, free negro or mulatto, any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than two hundred dollars and costs; and if the said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding two months imprisonment in the county jail, and he or she shall moreover be liable to the party injured in damages.
Apprenticeship laws
It shall be the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State, to report to the probate courts of their respective counties semiannually, at the January and July terms of said courts, all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under the age of eighteen, in their respective counties, beats, or districts, who are orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means or who refuse to provide for and support said minors; and thereupon it shall be the duty of said probate court to order the clerk of said court to apprentice said minors to some competent and suitable person on such terms as the court may direct, having a particular care to the interest of said minor.
The said court shall require the said master or mistress to furnish said minor with sufficient food and clothing; to treat said minor humanely; furnish medical attention in case of sickness; teach, or cause to be taught, him or her to read and write, if under fifteen years old, and will conform to any law that may be hereafter passed for the regulation of the duties and relation of master and apprentice: Provided, that said apprentice shall be bound by indenture, in case of males, until they are twenty-one years old, and in case of females until they are eighteen years old.
In the management and control of said apprentices, said master or mistress shall have the power to inflict such moderate corporeal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to infliction on his or her child or ward at common law: Provided, that in no case shall cruel or inhuman punishment be inflicted.
If any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master or mistress, without his or her consent, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him or her before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress; and in the event of a refusal on the part of said apprentice so to return, then said justice shall commit said apprentice to the jail of said county, on failure to give bond, to the next term of the county court; and it shall be the duty of said court at the first term thereafter to investigate said case, and if the court shall be of opinion that said apprentice left the employment of his or her master or mistress without good cause, to order him or her to be punished, as provided for the punishment of hired freedmen, as may be from time to time provided for by law for desertion, until he or she shall agree to return to the service of his or her master or mistress.
If any person entice away any apprentice from his or her master or mistress, or shall knowingly employ an apprentice, or furnish him or her food or clothing without the written consent of his or her master or mistress, or shall sell or give said apprentice spirits without such consent, said person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction there of before the county court, be punished as provided for the punishment of person enticing from their employer hired freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes.
Vagrancy laws
All rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars, jugglers, or persons practicing unlawful games or plays, runaways, common drunkards, common night-walkers, pilferers, lewd, wanton, or lascivious persons, in speech or behavior, common railers and brawlers, persons who neglect their calling or employment, misspend what they earn, or do not provide for the support of themselves or their families, or dependents, and all other idle and disorderly persons, including all who neglect all lawful business, habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame, gaming-houses, or tippling shops, shall be deemed and considered vagrants, under the provisions of this act, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars, with all accruing costs, and be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding ten days.
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 unlawful assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all white persons assembling themselves 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 freed woman, freed negro or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free negro or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white man two hundred dollars, and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
All justices of the peace, mayors, and aldermen of incorporated towns, counties, and cities of the several counties in this State shall have jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy in their respective towns, counties, and cities, and it is hereby made their duty, whenever they shall ascertain that any person or persons in their respective towns, and counties and cities are violating any of the provisions of this act, to have said party or parties arrested, and brought before them, and immediately investigate said charge, and, on conviction, punish said party or parties, as provided for herein. And it is hereby made the duty of all sheriffs, constables, town constables, and all such like officers, and city marshals, to report to some officer having jurisdiction all violations of any of the provisions of this act, and in case any officer shall fail or neglect any duty herein it shall be the duty of the county court to fine said officer, upon conviction, not exceeding one hundred dollars, to be paid into the county treasury for county purposes.
Keepers of gaming houses, houses of prostitution, prostitutes, public or private, and all persons who derive their chief support in the employments that militate against good morals, or against law, shall be deemed and held to be vagrants.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 190-97.
Marriage between a white person and a person of color shall be void; and every person authorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony who shall knowingly solemnize the same between such persons shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
Persons of color shall be capable of bearing evidence in all controversies in law and in equity, where the rights of persons or property of persons of color shall be put in issue, and also in pleas of the State, there the violence, fraud, or injury alleged shall be charged to have been done by or to persons of color. In all other civil and criminal cases such evidence shall be deemed inadmissable, unless by consent of the parties of record.
It shall be the duty of the several courts of pleas and quarter sessions to bind out, as apprentices, all children of free negroes where the parents with whom such children may live do not habitually employ their time in some honest, industrious occupation.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 197-202.
A person of color who is in the employment of a master engaged in husbandry shall not have the right to sell any corn, rice, peas, wheat, or other grain, any flour, cotton, fodder, hay, bacon, fresh meat of any kind, poultry of any kind, animal of any kind, or any other product of a farm, without having written evidence from such master that he has the right to sell such product.
Persons of color constitute no part of the militia of the State, and no one of them, without permission in writing from the district judge, or a magistrate, shall be allowed to keep a fire-arm, sword, or other military weapon.
It shall not be lawful for a person of color to be owner, in whole or in part, of any distiller where spirituous liquors, or in retailing the same, in a shop or elsewhere.
No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this State unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond, with two freeholders as sureties, to be approved by the judge of the district court or a magistrate, in a penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned for his good behavior and for his support, if he should become unable to support himself.
Upon view of a misdemeanor committed by a person of color, any person present may arrest the offender and take him before a magistrate to be dealt with as the case may require. In case of a misdemeanor committed by a white person towards a person of color, any person may complain to a magistrate, who shall cause the offender to be arrested.
A child over the age of two years, born of a colored parent, may be bound by the father, if he be living in the district, or in case of his death or absence from the district, by the mother, as an apprentice to any respectable white or colored person who is competent to make a contract. The master shall receive to his own use the profits of the hire of his apprentice.
All persons who have not some fixed and known place of abode, and some lawful and reputable employment; those who have not some visible and known means of a fair, reputable, and honest livelihood; and common prostitutes; those who are found wandering from place to place, vending, bartering, or peddling any articles of commodities, without a license from the district judge or other proper authority; all common gamblers, persons who lead idle or disorderly lives, or keep or frequent disorderly or disreputable houses or places; who, not having sufficient means of support, are able to work, and do not work; those who (whether or not they own lands or are lessees or mechanics) do not provide a reasonable and proper maintenance for themselves and families; fortune tellers, study beggars, common dunkards, those who hunt game of any description, or fish on the land of others, or frequent the premises, contrary to the will of the occupants, shall be deemed vagrants, and be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed.
Labor provisions
All persons of color who make contracts for service or labor shall be known as servants, and those with whom they contract shall be known as masters.
On farms, or in out-door service, the hours of labor, except on Sunday, shall be from sunrise to sunset, with a reasonable interval for breakfast and dinner. Servants shall rise at the dawn in the morning, feed, water, and care for the animals on the farm, do the usual and needful work about the premises, prepare their meals for the day, if required by their master, and begin the farm work or other work by sunrise. The servant shall be careful of all the animals and property of the master, and especially of the animals and implements used by him; shall protect the same from injury by other persons, and shall be answerable for all property lost, destroyed, or injured by his negligence, dishonesty, or bad faith.
Servants shall be quiet and orderly in their quarters, at their work, and on the premises; shall extinguish their lights and fires, and retire to rest at reasonable hours.
No person of color shall pursue or practice the art, trade, or business of an artisan, mechanic, or shop-keeper, or any other trade, employment, or business (besides that of husbandry or that of a servant under a contract for service or labor) on his own account for his own benefit, or in partnership with a white person, or an agent or servant of any person, until he shall have obtained a license therefore from the judge of the district court, which license shall be good for one year only.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 202-20.
Persons of African and Indian descent are hereby declared to be competent witnesses in all courts of this State, in as full a manner as such persons are by an act of Congress competent witnesses in all the courts of the United States; and all laws and parts of laws of the State excluding such persons from competency, are hereby repealed. This act shall not be so construed as to give colored persons the right to vote, hold office, or sit on juries in his State.
The provisions of this act shall not be so construed as to require the education of colored and white children in the same school.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 220-21.
Any person who shall persuade or entice away from the service of an employer any person who is under a contract of labor to such employer, or any apprentice who is bound as such, from the service of his master, or who shall feed, harbor, or secret such person under contract, or apprentice who has left the employment of employer or master, without the permission of such employer or master, the person or persons so offending shall be liable in damages to the employer or master.
All labor contracts shall be made with the heads of families; they shall embrace the labor of all the members of these family named therein able to work, and shall be binding on all minors of said families.
The labor of the employee shall be governed by the terms stipulated in the contract: he shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent, take proper care of his work-mules, horses, oxen, stock of all character and kind; also, all agricultural implements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from the laborer’s wages for injuries done to animals, or agricultural implements committed to their care, or for bad or negligent work. Failing to obey reasonable orders, neglect of duty, leaving home without permission, impudence, swearing, or indecent language to, or in the presence of, the employer, his family, or agent, or quarreling and fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience.
Laborers, in the various duties of the household, and in all the domestic duties of the family, shall, at all hours of the day or night, and on all days of the week, promptly answer all calls and obey and execute all lawful orders and commands of the family in whose service they are employed. It is the duty of this class of laborers to be especially civil and polite to their employer, his family, and guests, and they shall receive gentle and kind treatment.
Apprenticeship provisions
It shall be the duty of all sheriffs to report to the judge of the county court all indigent or vagrant minors within their respective counties, and also all minors whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse, to support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the county judge to apprentice said minor to some suitable or competent person, on such terms as the court may direct.
If any apprentice shall run away from, or leave the employ of, his master or mistress without permission, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his master or mistress.
Any person who shall knowingly and wilfully entice away an apprentice, or conceal or harbor a deserting apprentice, shall, upon conviction thereof, pay to the master or mistress five dollars per day for each day.
Vagrancy provisions
A vagrant is hereby declared to be an idle person, living without any means of support, and making no exertions to obtain a livelihood by any honest employment. All persons who stroll about to tell fortunes, or to exhibit tricks or cheats in public, not licensed by law; common prostitutes and professional gamblers, or persons who keep houses for prostitutes or for gamblers; persons who go about to beg alms, and who are not afflicted or disabled by a physical malady or misfortune; and habitual drunkards, who abandon, neglect, or refuse to aid in the support of their families, and who may be complained of by their families; or persons who stroll idly about the streets of town or cities, having no local habitation and no honest business or employment, each and all of the above aforesaid classes be, and they are hereby, declared vagrants, coming within the meaning of this act.
A peace officer shall arrest a vagrant and bring him or her before the court or magistrate issuing the warrant, and if no peace officer can be conveniently procured the warrant may be directed to any private person, who shall execute and return the warrant according to law.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 221-27.
If any person shall entice away from the service of another any laborer employed by him under a contract as provided by this act, knowing of the existence of such contract, or shall knowingly employ a laborer bound to service to another under such contract, he shall forfeit to the party aggrieved not less than ten nor more than twenty dollars for every such offence.
Colored persons and Indians shall be admitted as witnesses in all civil cases and proceedings at law in which a color person or an Indian is a party, or may be directly benefitted or injured by the result.
The overseers of the poor are required, on discovering any vagrant within their respective counties, to make information thereof to any justice of the peace. Such justices shall, by warrant, order such vagrant to be employed in labor for any term not exceeding three months, and to be hired out for the best wages that can be procured.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 227-30.
Share with the class that Black Codes elicited a range of reactions from different segments of American society. Divide the class into groups of two assigning each student the responses from a Northerner and two Southern African Americans.
Have each group answer and discuss the following questions in conversation using the Response to the Black Codes handout:
As an optional element, you may opt to review as a whole class or divide students into groups of three and add the response to the Black Codes from a Confederate to the discussion. This excerpt, by George Fitzhugh, includes racist language and stereotypes that need to be treated with sensitivity. While this historical expression of racism is included in order to help students recognize and understand the ongoing influence of White supremacist ideology after enslavement, it is imperative that if shared it is done with care as it may trigger painful emotions and responses in students.
Not surprisingly, many northerners and Unionists criticized the codes. The following statement, made by Missouri Republican William M. Grosvenor, was typical of their responses:
The contest [i.e., the Civil War] was not closed when Lee surrendered. It only changed its form. We have no longer a known foe and an open field. Intrigue and chicanery come by gift of nature to all Southern races. For skirmishes we are to have speeches; for battles, conventions, and in place of campaigns, the sessions of Legislatures and Congresses. The rebel puts aside the bayonet, and takes up the ballot. It is for us to say whether it will not prove the more deadly weapon of the two.
Within the next six months eleven new organizations, claiming to be states, will apply for restoration of political powers. With the national Congress rests absolute power to admit, delay, or reject, and, in case of delay or rejection, to make such provision for the government of the conquered territory or the future organization of its inhabitants, as the national safety may require. If the nation had the shadow of right to crush the rebellion, it has now full right to protect itself, and all its loyal citizens, against the political influence of rebels whose arms it has taken, and whose lives it has spared. In all things essential to the success of a Republican form of government, it is not only the right but the duty of Congress to dictate terms. In the exercise of that duty its members should be sustained and held to strict account by a vigorous public sentiment. . . .
But the freedom which the nation has solemnly promised is not a mere nominal emancipation. It involves full protection in all rights of person and property—absolute equality before the law. No man will pretend that such protection is possible, after the withdrawal of bureau superintendence [oversight of the Freedmen’s Bureau] and military power, unless the testimony of the freedman is received in all the courts, and his rights of contract and property are placed upon the same basis as those of whites. Such provisions do not yet exist in any rebel state. Had the [state constitutional] conventions which have been held incorporated provisions of this nature into the new constitutions, there would have been some security at least, that the rights of the loyal blacks would not be forever at the mercy of every state legislature.
Every [state] convention, as yet, has refused to do anything of the kind. The subject was not overlooked, . . . for ordinances were passed directing state legislatures to make provision for the protection of the freedmen, and “to guard the state against the evils which may result from their sudden emancipation.” If it was thought that this vague but almost insulting formula would satisfy the just demands of a nation, whose faith is pledged to secure to these victims of oppression and hatred full and permanent protection in all their natural rights, surely Congress will not fail to teach the masters their error! It is a matter of the first importance. . . .
Full well these Southern leaders know that laws passed by a legislature, though they might satisfy some Northern consciences, would give no permanent protection, since they would be liable to repeal at the next session after full restoration had removed all restraint upon the popular prejudice. Should Congress neglect this matter, it will outrage the moral sense and the honor of the North. We cannot justly leave all the rights of the freedmen at the mercy of those who so long held them in slavery. We cannot safely leave four millions of people so utterly defenseless against the cruelty or revenge of a hostile and exasperated race. . . .
There is abundant evidence that the Southern people do not yet show such a spirit that they can be safely left to deal as they please with those whom the nation has so recently rescued from bondage, and that the existing passion and prejudice would render ineffective the best laws ever framed. While the present state of feeling lasts, to withdraw the protecting power of the nation, and restore the rebel states to full control over their domestic affairs, would be a deed of the most heartless cruelty. Indeed, it would be not only inhuman, but suicidal. It would end in anarchy, and a war of races. For this difficulty there are but two remedies; to continue military or provisional government until a different state of feeling is developed, or to give to the blacks an invulnerable shield of self-protection in the right of suffrage. No man can logically deny the power of Congress to enfranchise the negroes, as the only sufficient guarantee of their true freedom and equality before the law. . . .
Recognition, permanent establishment, and representation in Congress, must be refused for the present to all the revolted states. Provisional government or military control must be maintained, until there is sufficient evidence, both in the form of their laws and in the temper of the people, that the rebel communities can he safely restored to their political powers as members of the Union. . . .
Source: W. M. Grosvenor, “The Rights of the Nation, and the Duty of Congress,” New Englander and Yale Review 24:93 (October 1865), 755-78.
African Americans themselves played key roles in arguing for their rights after emancipation. Shortly after freedom, they met throughout the nation to assert their rights and plead their cause. A typical instance occurred in South Carolina in 1865. In November of that year, over forty African Americans met in convention in Charleston to consider their common concerns and work to their common good. They considered a wide range of issues, from education for African-American children to the furthering of blacks’ economic interest. Of particular concern to the convention were the “black codes” passed by the South Carolina state legislature earlier in 1865. African Americans responded with alarm and concern to these developments, and organized to speak out against them. The convention crafted the following address, which was directed toward the white legislature that had passed the codes.
We have not come together in battle array to assume a boastful attitude and to talk loudly of high-sounding principles or unmeaning platforms, nor do we pretend to any great oldness; for we know your wealth and greatness, and our poverty and weakness; and although we feel keenly our wrongs, still we come together, we trust, in a spirit of meekness and of patriotic good-will to all the people of the State. . . .
Thus we would address you, not as enemies, but as friends and fellow-countrymen, who desire to dwell among you in peace, and whose destinies are interwoven, and linked with those of the American people, and hence must be fulfilled in this country. As descendants of a race feeble and long oppressed, we might with propriety appeal to a great and magnanimous people like Americans, for special favors and encouragement, on the principle that the strong should aid the weak, the learned should teach the unlearned.
But it is for no such purposes that we raise our voices to the people of South Carolina on this occasion. We ask for no special privileges or peculiar favors. We ask only for even-handed Justice, or for the removal of such positive obstructions and disabilities as past, and the recent Legislators have seen fit to throw in our way, and heap upon us.
Without any rational cause or provocation on our part, of which we are conscious, as a people, we, by the action of your Convention and Legislature, have been virtually, and with few exceptions excluded from, first, the rights of citizenship, which you cheerfully accord to strangers, but deny to us who have been born and reared in your midst, who were faithful while your greatest trials were upon you, and have done nothing since to merit your disapprobation.
We are denied the right of giving our testimony in like manner with that of our white fellow-citizens, in the courts of the State, by which our persons and property are subject to every species of violence, insult and fraud without redress.
We are also by the present laws, not only denied the right of citizenship, the inestimable right of voting for those who rule over us in the land of our birth, but by the so-called Black Code we are deprived the rights of the meanest profligate in the country – the right to engage in any legitimate business free from any restraints, save those which govern all other citizens of this State. . . .
We simply desire that we shall be recognized as men; that we have no obstructions placed in our way; that the same laws which govern white men shall direct colored men; that we have the right of trial by a jury of our peers, that schools be opened or established for our children; that we be permitted to acquire homesteads for ourselves and children; that we be dealt with as others, in equity and justice.
Source: “Address of the Colored State Convention to the People of the State of South Carolina,” Proceedings of the Colored People’s Convention of the State of South Carolina, in Proceedings of the Black State Conventions, 1840-1865, Philip S. Foner and George E. Walker, eds., (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980), II, 298-300.
Before the Civil War, George Fitzhugh was one of the foremost apologists for southern slavery. Fitzhugh believed deeply that slavery was a benign social institution, which produced both a harmonious social order and served as a “civilizing” influence on the enslaved. Confederate defeat and universal emancipation destroyed the institution of slavery, which he saw as so important to the maintenance of southern life. Still, he held some hope for the post-war world. Steeped deeply in the paternalistic ethos of the pre-war South, Fithugh could not imagine a world where the freedpeople were economic, political, and social equals of whites. Instead, he argued for legal restraints on the lives of freedpeople, imagining them as an inferior, semi-servile caste with limited legal rights. Most important, he believed, was the need to provide legal mechanisms in keep freedpeople engaged in manual labor. His argument served as a potent ideological justification of the black codes passed by southern state legislatures in 1865.
We of the South would not find much difficulty in managing the negroes, at least tolerably well, if left to ourselves, for we would be guided by the lights of experience and the teachings of history, sacred and profane. . . . We should be satisfied to compel them to engage in coarse, common manual labor, and to punish them for dereliction of duty or nonfulfillment of their contracts with sufficient severity, to make the great majority of them useful, productive laborers.
We would take care of, in the most humane and ample manner, those, unable to provide for and take care of themselves; but they should be no charge or burden on the whites. By a tax on the labor of the strong and healthy negroes we would raise a sufficient fund to provide comfortable subsistence for the weak, infirm and aged negroes. We should treat them as mere grown-up children, entitled like children, or apprentices, to the protection of guardians or masters, and bound to obey those put above them, in place of parents, just as children are so bound. . . .
To punish idleness is the first and most incumbent duty of government; and the punishment should be severe enough to prevent or correct the evil. Vagrant laws are hardly needed by the whites, and they sleep upon our statute books. The white race is naturally provident and accumulative, and but few of them thieves. They have many wants, and to supply those wants, generally labor assiduously and continually. Little legal regulation is needed to induce white men to work.
But a great deal of severe legislation will be required to compel negroes to labor as much as they should do, in order not to become a charge upon the whites. We must have a black code, and not confound white men with negroes, because one in a thousand may be no better than the negroes. Some negroes are sufficiently provident and industrious, to be left like white men, to take care of themselves without danger of their supporting themselves by theft in youth, and becoming a charge on the public in old age. Such persons would suffer nothing from a severe black code that compelled negroes to labor and to fulfil their engagements, under the penalty of punishment. . . .
Immemorial usage, law, custom and divine injunction, nay human nature itself, have subordinated inferior races to superior races. Never did the black man come in contact with the white man, that he did not become his subordinate, if not his slave. We must quite expel nature before we can make the negroes the equals of the whites, or even so elevate them, as to fit them to be governed by a code so mild as that which suffices to govern whites. . . .
It is sheer nonsense to talk of extending special protection to any class of people, without at the same time abridging their liberties. We hope, indeed, we believe, the Freedmen's Bureau will not perpetrate this nonsense. It does extend complete and most costly protection to the negroes, but this protection will operate most ruinously to North and South, and to the negroes themselves, unless they be compelled to fulfil their duties as laborers. If the Bureau will force them to labor, as the emancipated white slaves of England were forced to labor, it will do much to benefit the North and the South, and more to benefit the negroes themselves; for it is on such terms alone, that they can be saved from a cruel and tedious extermination.
Source: George Fitzhugh, “What's to Be Done with the Negroes?” DeBow’s Review 1:6 (June 1866), 577-581.
Document 4.8.13
Begin this activity by engaging in a brief discussion with students. Ask students to brainstorm and share how during difficult times in their lives they have been able to resist or push through on their own or through the support of their family, friends or community members.
Make a connection for students between their responses and some of the ways that many African Americans had to determine how to resist or push through while the Black Codes were in place keeping in mind their own safety as well as that of their family, friends and community members. Responses may include:
Introduce students to artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, born in 1859, who was able to use his Art to positively represent the African American community. Provide an overview of Tanner using a resource of your choosing or by reading aloud the following brief overview:
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an influential African American artist known for his paintings and contributions to American art history. Born on June 21, 1859, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tanner showed early talent in art and pursued his passion despite facing racial barriers. Tanner’s artistic journey took him to Philadelphia and later to Paris, France, where he studied at renowned art schools. His time in Europe allowed him to develop his unique style, often focusing on religious and everyday scenes with a profound sense of light and atmosphere. Although Tanner eventually lived outside of the United States and largely completed his series on African American daily life in the late 1890s his experiences growing up through the end of the Civil War, the Black Codes and the later Jim Crow laws gave him a unique insight into the challenges facing African Americans on a daily basis. Henry Ossawa Tanner’s legacy extends beyond his artistry and his images provide a contrast to the negative depictions of African Americans and create a sense of cultural pride in the African American community. Throughout his career, Tanner broke barriers as one of the first African American artists to achieve widespread success and his works continue to be celebrated for their emotional depth, technical skill, and spiritual themes.
As a whole group or in smaller groups sharing share two images by artist Henry Ossawa Tanner:
Ask students to think, pair and share responses to the following prompts:
If students have completed Activity 2 they may use their completed Analysis of Black Codes Handout as a starting point for this essay. If they have not yet completed Activity 2, they should begin by choosing a state and Black Code excerpt to complete the handout from the selection provided.
After completing the handout students should do additional independent reflection and research in order to complete an essay that incorporates responses to the following questions.
All freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes shall have the right to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all the different and various courts of this State, to the same extent that white persons now have by law. And they shall be competent to testify only in open court, and only in cases in which freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes are parties, either plaintiff or defendant. . . .
The following persons are vagrants, in addition to those already declared to be vagrants by law. . . . A stubborn or refractory servant; a laborer or servant who loiters away his time, or refuses to comply with any contract for any term of service without just cause. . . .
When any person shall be convicted of vagrancy as provided for in this act, the justice of the peace may, at his discretion, either commit such person to jail, to the house of correction, or hire such person to any person who will hire the same for a period not longer than six months for cash; and the proceeds of such hiring, after paying all costs and charges, shall be paid into the county treasury for the benefit of the helpless in the poor house. . . .
It shall be the duty of the sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State to report to the probate courts all minors under the age of eighteen years, who are orphans, without visible means of support, or whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse to provide for and support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of said probate court to apprentice said minor to some suitable and competent person. If said minor be a child of a freedman, the former owner of said minor shall have the preference, when proof shall be made that he or she shall be a suitable person for that purpose.
It shall not be lawful for any person to interfere with, hire, employ, or entice away, or induce to leave the service of another, any laborer or servant, who shall have stipulated or contracted in writing to serve for any given number of days, weeks or months.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 170-72.
It shall not be lawful for any negro, mulatto, or other person of color to own, use, or keep in his possession, or under his control, any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, fire-arms, or ammunition of any kind, unless he first obtain a license to do so from the judge of probate of the county in which he may be a resident for the time being.
If any negro, mulatto, or other person of color shall intrude himself into any religious or other public assembly of white persons, or into any railroad car or other public vehicle set apart for the exclusive accommodation of white people, he shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be sentence to stand in the pillory for one hour, or be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes.
When any person of color shall enter into a contract to serve as a laborer, if he shall refuse or neglect to perform the stipulations of his contract by wilful disobedience of orders, wanton impudence, or disrespect to his employer or his authorized agent, failure or refusal to perform the work assigned him, idleness or abandonment of the premises of the employment of the party with whom the contract was made, he or she shall be liable upon complaint of his employer or his agent, to be arrested and tried before the criminal court of the county, and upon conviction shall be subject to all the pains and penalties prescribed for the punishment of vagrancy.
If any person shall entice, induce, or otherwise persuade any laborer or employee to quit the services of another to which he was bound by contract, before the expiration of the term of service stipulated in the said contract, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
If any white female resident within this State shall hereafter attempt to intermarry, or shall live in a state of adultery or fornication, with any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, she shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. If any negro, mulatto, or other person of color shall hereafter live in a state of adultery or fornication with any white female resident of this State, he shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 174-76.
Free persons of color shall be competent witnesses in all the courts of this State, in civil cases whereto a free person of color is a party, and in all criminal cases wherein a free person of color is defendant, or wherein the offence charged is a crime or misdemeanor against the person or property of a free person of color.
If any officer shall knowingly issue any marriage license to parties either or whom is of African descent and the other a white person, such office shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. If any office, or minister of the Gospel, shall marry such persons together, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
All minors may, by whichever parent has the control of them, be bound out as apprentices to any respectable person until they attain the age of twenty-one, or for a shorter period. To the master shall belong the proceeds of the apprentice’s labor; but at the expiration of his term of service, a faithful apprentice shall be entitled to a small allowance from the master with which to begin life; the amount to be left in the first instance to the master’s generosity.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 179-81.
All persons engaged as laborers in agricultural pursuits shall be required, within the first ten days of the month of January of each year, to make contracts for labor for the then ensuing year.
All labor contracts shall be made with the heads of families; they shall embrace the labor of all the members of the family able to work, and shall be binding on all minors of said families.
When in health the laborer shall work ten hours during the day in summer and nine hours during the day in winter. He shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent; take proper care of his work mules, horses, oxen, stock; also all agricultural implements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from the laborer’s wages for injuries done to animals or agricultural implements committed to his care, or for bad or negligent work.
Failing to obey reasonable order, neglect of duty, and leaving home without permission will be deemed disobedience; impudence, swearing, or indecent language to, or in the presence of, the employer, his family, or agent, or quarreling and fighting with one another shall be deemed disobedience.
It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to carry fire-arms on the premises or plantations of any citizens without the consent of the owner or proprietor.
Any one who shall persuade or entice away, feed, harbor, or secret any person who leaves his or her employer, with whom she or he has contracted or is assigned to live, or any apprentice who is bound as an apprentice, without the permission of his or her employer, said person or persons so offending shall be liable for damages to the employer.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 181-87.
If any free negro intermarry with any white woman, or if any white man shall intermarry with any negro woman, on conviction thereof such negro shall become a slave during life, and such white man or white woman who shall so intermarry shall become servants during the term of seven years.
No negro or mulatto, whether free or slave, and no Indian, shall be admitted as evidence in any matter depending in any court, or before any justice of the peace, where any white person is concerned. Any negro or mulatto, whether slave or free, may be a witness for or against any negro or mulatto, slave or free, in any proceeding whatever.
Apprenticeship laws
The several orphans’ courts of this State shall, upon information being given to them, summon before them the child of any free negro, and if it shall appear upon examination before such court that it would be better for the habits and comfort of such child that it should be bound as an apprentice to some white person, if a male till he is of the age of twenty-one years, or if a female till she is of the age of eighteen years.
If any negro, or other person, shall entice or persuade any negro apprentice to run away or abscond from the service of the master, such negro or other person so offending shall be subject to fine and imprisonment.
If any negro abscond, or run away, the orphans’ court of the county shall have full power to adjudge and order such apprentice to serve further time, after the expiration of the period for which such apprentice may be bound, as will compensate the master or person entitled to the service for all loss occasioned by such running away.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 187-90.
Laws of contract
Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of five dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery; and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a set off for so much against the wages of said deserting employee.
Upon affidavit made by the employer of any freedman, free negro or mulatto, or other credible person, before any justice of the peace or member of the board of police, that any freedman, free negro or mulatto legally employed by said employer has illegally deserted said employment, such justice of the peace or member of the board of police issue his warrant or warrants, returnable before himself or other such officer, to any sheriff, constable or special deputy, commanding him to arrest said deserter, and return him or her to said employer.
If any person shall persuade or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro or mulatto to desert from the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free negro or mullato, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman, free negro or mulatto, any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than two hundred dollars and costs; and if the said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding two months imprisonment in the county jail, and he or she shall moreover be liable to the party injured in damages.
Apprenticeship laws
It shall be the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State, to report to the probate courts of their respective counties semiannually, at the January and July terms of said courts, all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under the age of eighteen, in their respective counties, beats, or districts, who are orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means or who refuse to provide for and support said minors; and thereupon it shall be the duty of said probate court to order the clerk of said court to apprentice said minors to some competent and suitable person on such terms as the court may direct, having a particular care to the interest of said minor.
The said court shall require the said master or mistress to furnish said minor with sufficient food and clothing; to treat said minor humanely; furnish medical attention in case of sickness; teach, or cause to be taught, him or her to read and write, if under fifteen years old, and will conform to any law that may be hereafter passed for the regulation of the duties and relation of master and apprentice: Provided, that said apprentice shall be bound by indenture, in case of males, until they are twenty-one years old, and in case of females until they are eighteen years old.
In the management and control of said apprentices, said master or mistress shall have the power to inflict such moderate corporeal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to infliction on his or her child or ward at common law: Provided, that in no case shall cruel or inhuman punishment be inflicted.
If any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master or mistress, without his or her consent, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him or her before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress; and in the event of a refusal on the part of said apprentice so to return, then said justice shall commit said apprentice to the jail of said county, on failure to give bond, to the next term of the county court; and it shall be the duty of said court at the first term thereafter to investigate said case, and if the court shall be of opinion that said apprentice left the employment of his or her master or mistress without good cause, to order him or her to be punished, as provided for the punishment of hired freedmen, as may be from time to time provided for by law for desertion, until he or she shall agree to return to the service of his or her master or mistress.
If any person entice away any apprentice from his or her master or mistress, or shall knowingly employ an apprentice, or furnish him or her food or clothing without the written consent of his or her master or mistress, or shall sell or give said apprentice spirits without such consent, said person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction there of before the county court, be punished as provided for the punishment of person enticing from their employer hired freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes.
Vagrancy laws
All rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars, jugglers, or persons practicing unlawful games or plays, runaways, common drunkards, common night-walkers, pilferers, lewd, wanton, or lascivious persons, in speech or behavior, common railers and brawlers, persons who neglect their calling or employment, misspend what they earn, or do not provide for the support of themselves or their families, or dependents, and all other idle and disorderly persons, including all who neglect all lawful business, habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame, gaming-houses, or tippling shops, shall be deemed and considered vagrants, under the provisions of this act, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars, with all accruing costs, and be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding ten days.
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 unlawful assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all white persons assembling themselves 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 freed woman, freed negro or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free negro or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white man two hundred dollars, and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
All justices of the peace, mayors, and aldermen of incorporated towns, counties, and cities of the several counties in this State shall have jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy in their respective towns, counties, and cities, and it is hereby made their duty, whenever they shall ascertain that any person or persons in their respective towns, and counties and cities are violating any of the provisions of this act, to have said party or parties arrested, and brought before them, and immediately investigate said charge, and, on conviction, punish said party or parties, as provided for herein. And it is hereby made the duty of all sheriffs, constables, town constables, and all such like officers, and city marshals, to report to some officer having jurisdiction all violations of any of the provisions of this act, and in case any officer shall fail or neglect any duty herein it shall be the duty of the county court to fine said officer, upon conviction, not exceeding one hundred dollars, to be paid into the county treasury for county purposes.
Keepers of gaming houses, houses of prostitution, prostitutes, public or private, and all persons who derive their chief support in the employments that militate against good morals, or against law, shall be deemed and held to be vagrants.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 190-97.
Marriage between a white person and a person of color shall be void; and every person authorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony who shall knowingly solemnize the same between such persons shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
Persons of color shall be capable of bearing evidence in all controversies in law and in equity, where the rights of persons or property of persons of color shall be put in issue, and also in pleas of the State, there the violence, fraud, or injury alleged shall be charged to have been done by or to persons of color. In all other civil and criminal cases such evidence shall be deemed inadmissable, unless by consent of the parties of record.
It shall be the duty of the several courts of pleas and quarter sessions to bind out, as apprentices, all children of free negroes where the parents with whom such children may live do not habitually employ their time in some honest, industrious occupation.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 197-202.
A person of color who is in the employment of a master engaged in husbandry shall not have the right to sell any corn, rice, peas, wheat, or other grain, any flour, cotton, fodder, hay, bacon, fresh meat of any kind, poultry of any kind, animal of any kind, or any other product of a farm, without having written evidence from such master that he has the right to sell such product.
Persons of color constitute no part of the militia of the State, and no one of them, without permission in writing from the district judge, or a magistrate, shall be allowed to keep a fire-arm, sword, or other military weapon.
It shall not be lawful for a person of color to be owner, in whole or in part, of any distiller where spirituous liquors, or in retailing the same, in a shop or elsewhere.
No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this State unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond, with two freeholders as sureties, to be approved by the judge of the district court or a magistrate, in a penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned for his good behavior and for his support, if he should become unable to support himself.
Upon view of a misdemeanor committed by a person of color, any person present may arrest the offender and take him before a magistrate to be dealt with as the case may require. In case of a misdemeanor committed by a white person towards a person of color, any person may complain to a magistrate, who shall cause the offender to be arrested.
A child over the age of two years, born of a colored parent, may be bound by the father, if he be living in the district, or in case of his death or absence from the district, by the mother, as an apprentice to any respectable white or colored person who is competent to make a contract. The master shall receive to his own use the profits of the hire of his apprentice.
All persons who have not some fixed and known place of abode, and some lawful and reputable employment; those who have not some visible and known means of a fair, reputable, and honest livelihood; and common prostitutes; those who are found wandering from place to place, vending, bartering, or peddling any articles of commodities, without a license from the district judge or other proper authority; all common gamblers, persons who lead idle or disorderly lives, or keep or frequent disorderly or disreputable houses or places; who, not having sufficient means of support, are able to work, and do not work; those who (whether or not they own lands or are lessees or mechanics) do not provide a reasonable and proper maintenance for themselves and families; fortune tellers, study beggars, common dunkards, those who hunt game of any description, or fish on the land of others, or frequent the premises, contrary to the will of the occupants, shall be deemed vagrants, and be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed.
Labor provisions
All persons of color who make contracts for service or labor shall be known as servants, and those with whom they contract shall be known as masters.
On farms, or in out-door service, the hours of labor, except on Sunday, shall be from sunrise to sunset, with a reasonable interval for breakfast and dinner. Servants shall rise at the dawn in the morning, feed, water, and care for the animals on the farm, do the usual and needful work about the premises, prepare their meals for the day, if required by their master, and begin the farm work or other work by sunrise. The servant shall be careful of all the animals and property of the master, and especially of the animals and implements used by him; shall protect the same from injury by other persons, and shall be answerable for all property lost, destroyed, or injured by his negligence, dishonesty, or bad faith.
Servants shall be quiet and orderly in their quarters, at their work, and on the premises; shall extinguish their lights and fires, and retire to rest at reasonable hours.
No person of color shall pursue or practice the art, trade, or business of an artisan, mechanic, or shop-keeper, or any other trade, employment, or business (besides that of husbandry or that of a servant under a contract for service or labor) on his own account for his own benefit, or in partnership with a white person, or an agent or servant of any person, until he shall have obtained a license therefore from the judge of the district court, which license shall be good for one year only.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 202-20.
Persons of African and Indian descent are hereby declared to be competent witnesses in all courts of this State, in as full a manner as such persons are by an act of Congress competent witnesses in all the courts of the United States; and all laws and parts of laws of the State excluding such persons from competency, are hereby repealed. This act shall not be so construed as to give colored persons the right to vote, hold office, or sit on juries in his State.
The provisions of this act shall not be so construed as to require the education of colored and white children in the same school.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 220-21.
Any person who shall persuade or entice away from the service of an employer any person who is under a contract of labor to such employer, or any apprentice who is bound as such, from the service of his master, or who shall feed, harbor, or secret such person under contract, or apprentice who has left the employment of employer or master, without the permission of such employer or master, the person or persons so offending shall be liable in damages to the employer or master.
All labor contracts shall be made with the heads of families; they shall embrace the labor of all the members of these family named therein able to work, and shall be binding on all minors of said families.
The labor of the employee shall be governed by the terms stipulated in the contract: he shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent, take proper care of his work-mules, horses, oxen, stock of all character and kind; also, all agricultural implements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from the laborer’s wages for injuries done to animals, or agricultural implements committed to their care, or for bad or negligent work. Failing to obey reasonable orders, neglect of duty, leaving home without permission, impudence, swearing, or indecent language to, or in the presence of, the employer, his family, or agent, or quarreling and fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience.
Laborers, in the various duties of the household, and in all the domestic duties of the family, shall, at all hours of the day or night, and on all days of the week, promptly answer all calls and obey and execute all lawful orders and commands of the family in whose service they are employed. It is the duty of this class of laborers to be especially civil and polite to their employer, his family, and guests, and they shall receive gentle and kind treatment.
Apprenticeship provisions
It shall be the duty of all sheriffs to report to the judge of the county court all indigent or vagrant minors within their respective counties, and also all minors whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse, to support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the county judge to apprentice said minor to some suitable or competent person, on such terms as the court may direct.
If any apprentice shall run away from, or leave the employ of, his master or mistress without permission, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his master or mistress.
Any person who shall knowingly and wilfully entice away an apprentice, or conceal or harbor a deserting apprentice, shall, upon conviction thereof, pay to the master or mistress five dollars per day for each day.
Vagrancy provisions
A vagrant is hereby declared to be an idle person, living without any means of support, and making no exertions to obtain a livelihood by any honest employment. All persons who stroll about to tell fortunes, or to exhibit tricks or cheats in public, not licensed by law; common prostitutes and professional gamblers, or persons who keep houses for prostitutes or for gamblers; persons who go about to beg alms, and who are not afflicted or disabled by a physical malady or misfortune; and habitual drunkards, who abandon, neglect, or refuse to aid in the support of their families, and who may be complained of by their families; or persons who stroll idly about the streets of town or cities, having no local habitation and no honest business or employment, each and all of the above aforesaid classes be, and they are hereby, declared vagrants, coming within the meaning of this act.
A peace officer shall arrest a vagrant and bring him or her before the court or magistrate issuing the warrant, and if no peace officer can be conveniently procured the warrant may be directed to any private person, who shall execute and return the warrant according to law.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 221-27.
If any person shall entice away from the service of another any laborer employed by him under a contract as provided by this act, knowing of the existence of such contract, or shall knowingly employ a laborer bound to service to another under such contract, he shall forfeit to the party aggrieved not less than ten nor more than twenty dollars for every such offence.
Colored persons and Indians shall be admitted as witnesses in all civil cases and proceedings at law in which a color person or an Indian is a party, or may be directly benefitted or injured by the result.
The overseers of the poor are required, on discovering any vagrant within their respective counties, to make information thereof to any justice of the peace. Such justices shall, by warrant, order such vagrant to be employed in labor for any term not exceeding three months, and to be hired out for the best wages that can be procured.
Source: “Laws in Relation to Freedmen,” 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 6, Freedman’s Affairs, 227-30.
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