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Comparing The Slave Codes And Jim Crow Laws During The Reconstruction Era

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The Reconstruction period was terrible for many people, but most of all the freedmen had it worse than anyone else. The freedmen had multiple different laws, first before the civil war there was the Slave Codes, then during Reconstruction there was the Black Codes and after that came the Jim Crow Laws. All three set of laws were terrible but the Black codes were worse than the Slave Codes and the Jim Crow Laws.
Before and during the Civil War there were many slaves working for the white men (masters) In the fields day in and day out and the slaves had many rules known as the Slave Codes, the Slave Codes were bad because they would give cruel punishment for doing anything presumed as "wrong" In the masters eyes. "If any slave Is found on a …show more content…

In the Mississippi Black Codes of 1865 there is much more harsh punishment for anything you do wrong the freedmen get fined or thrown in jail for anything that the whites see fit as wrong. "Persons who neglect their calling, misspend what they earn or do not provide for the support of themselves or their families or dependents... or habitually misspend their time...shall be fined not exceeding $100, with all accruing costs, and be imprisoned at the discretion of the court not exceeding ten days." The whites can determine on their own whether or not what the blacks are buying with their own money is "misspending" or that they aren't providing for their family, but what if they actually are but the white people just don’t see it that way? "Shall not be lawful for any freedmen, free negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person... and any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony and, on conviction thereof, shall be confined in the state penitentiary for life." This is a very harsh punishment for trying to marry someone you love just because of the color of your skin. This is the worst set of laws because now that the blacks are "free" they still aren't technically free because they have all these restrictions on how they spend their money, who they can and can’t marry, they get charged large amounts of money that they don’t have, that money is meant to be spent on their

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