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The Black Codes, sometimes called the Black Laws, were laws which governed the conduct of African Americans (both free and freedmen).In 1832, James Kent wrote that "in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political privileges, between free white persons and free colored persons of African blood; and in no part of the country do the latter, in point of fact ...
During fall 1865, out of response to the Black Codes and worrisome signs of Southern recalcitrance, the Radical Republicans blocked the readmission of the former rebellious states to the Congress. Johnson, however, was content with allowing former Confederate states into the Union as long as their state governments adopted the Thirteenth ...
More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states. [1]
The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts (March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 428-430, c.153; March 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 2-5, c.6; July 19, 1867, 15 Stat. 14-16, c.30; and March 11, 1868, 15 Stat. 41, c.25), were four statutes passed during the Reconstruction Era by the 40th United States Congress addressing the requirement for Southern States to be readmitted to the Union.
In response, Southern planters argued that Black laborers were unreliable and unstable and implemented Black codes with labor provisions that would limit the mobility of Black people. [1] Starting as early as 1865, Southern newspapers began printing editorials and letters calling for Chinese labor to be the new labor supply. [2]
Earlier, the Freedmen's Bureau and the occupation armies had prevented Southern Black Codes, which had limited the rights of freedmen and other Black people (including their choices of work and living locations), from becoming effective. [9] [10] On July 16, 1866, Congress extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, also despite Johnson's veto.
Most southern states had no public education systems until these were established during Reconstruction by the new biracial legislatures. Educated free Black people created literary societies in the North, making libraries available to blacks in a time when books were costly but dues or subscription fees were required for membership.
In addition, the Reconstruction Acts and state Reconstruction constitutions and laws barred many ex-Confederate Southern whites from holding office and, in some states, disenfranchised them unless they took a loyalty oath. Southern whites, fearing black domination, resisted the freedmen's exercise of political power. [9]