Black Codes Of African Americans During The Reconstruction Era

Black Codes
The Black Codes were a set of rules and regulations adopted by the southern states that restricted the freedoms of the newly emancipated African Americans during the Reconstruction Era. African Americans faced such an injustice that even though they were free individuals, they were forced to abide these new laws, and ultimately, these laws made them free to continue the laboring work that they had been doing. Although their legal status may have changed, African Americans were still facing constant struggles of that when they were slaves. Every Southern state had adopted these set of rules, but some states tended to differ in the punishment or the consequences for their actions. In Ohio, “no black or mulatto person shall be

Many of them had to face white southerners who were highly distraught with the outcome that came from the war. “The ex-slave had become the scapegoat for the South’s humiliating defeat.” This had also caused another reason for white southerners to have such a strong disliking for African Americans. Many believed that African Americans had fled the south to join the Union forces to and to help the north win. Fleeing from the plantations was not very difficult due to the fact that many who guarded the plantations joined the confederacy to fight for their cause. After the Union’s victory and freeing African Americans, the south’s labor force decreased dramatically, and many of the jobs that were once held by slaves were left with no one to tend to them. One of the main problems was the fact that many of the ex-confederate generals were the ones elected for state offices and Congress and state leaders still carried prejudice towards African Americans. With the introduction of Black Codes, many believed that this would help towards progress for new freedmen. The problem was that it provided laws for African Americans to live, but it did change the way white southerners had treat or act towards them. The main purpose behind black codes was to find a way to, although unethically, legally control African Americans the way once did as slaves to ensure cheap labor to maximize their profits . They also wished to keep their communities segregated and to keep the allusion that whites as the superior