The Black Codes Of African Americans During The Reconstruction Era

A War After the Civil War, a war between the north side and the south side of the United States, ended, the two sides reunited back into a whole and abolished slavery altogether. Since most of the war was fought on The South, the sides had to rebuild back farms, towns, and cities of the south territory, which is now known as the Reconstruction era. During the Reconstruction era, from 1865-1877, President Andrew Johnson implemented many laws and policies between the African Americans and the whites, like the Black Codes that limited the former slaves, or the freedpeople, and the sharecropping contract that was like a compromise. The South claimed that African Americans have freedom and that they are freed people. Although African Americans had more freedom than before, they weren’t truly free as the whites because of the Black Codes, unfair employment, and white supremacy. The Black Codes were developed as a new plan to control the African Americans in different way than before. …show more content…
The Black Codes of Mississippi commanded that African Americans couldn’t “keep or carry fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition,” (Gienapp 108). This states that no freed people could own or have any weapons, but white people can. African Americans are being controlled and their freedom is less and more different from the whites. Since there were a lot of hatred towards the freed people and they weren’t treated as humans when they were slaves, whites can attack at any time and the freedpeople would be defenseless. The white southerners were violent and viewed the freed people as criminals, leading into many fights and attacks. Additionally, another law from the Mississippi Black Codes claimed that anyone can ”arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer...who shall have quit the service,” (Gienapp 325). This presents that if any freedmen are caught quitting their jobs without any good reasons, then they can be forced back into labor. The freed people couldn’t even have freedom of having a job or not and were forced into work they didn’t want to do. The freedpeople were controlled and had no privilege or power. Having unfair employment for the freedpeople limited their freedom. In the state of Mississippi, freedmen that were over eighteen “with no lawful employment or business… shall be deemed and considered vagrants,” (Gienapp 325). This tells us that even though the African Americans were “free”, they were required and forced to sign yearly labor contracts that were unbreakable. This conveys that they aren’t free from labor and work. Also they were forced into signing and if they didn’t then they could be arrested, which shows they have no say and don’t have much freedom in their jobs. Moreover, in the sharecropping contract it reveals that the freed people “will do good work and labor ten hours a day on average,” (“Sharecropping Contract”). This indicates that the freed people have to work long hours a day and will do their job nicely. The freed people are basically back to being slaves but are just being paid which tells us that they aren’t truly free. They would still have to work even if it’s freezing cold or burning hot outside, since they promised