Mississippi Black Code

Introduction

Mississippi's Black Code permitted free Negroes, freedmen and mulattoes to 'sue and be sued, plead in all the courts of law and equity in this state, and acquire personal property. And to have the same rights and facilities as the white persons have. The civil and political status of the Mississippi freedmen remained unclear at the end of war as it remained uncertain and unclear whether the Thirteenth Amendment did anything more than abolishing the legal condition of chattel slavery. Legislatures in the former Confederate states acted as if it had no concern when they enacted the Black Codes in 1865. The Black Codes were the scaffolding for rebuilding agriculture on the pattern of the old regime: overseers, obtrusive discipline, gang labor, men and children in the labor force, and even a return to physical coercion. To a certain extent however, even the Black Codes recognized free labor and property rights, and their coercive elements were often exaggerated. (Jones, 20)

Basic Rights For Former Slaves

But a series of restrictions limited Black rights to own land, travel, and engage in certain occupations. Under Louisiana's Black Code, Every Negro is required to be in the regular service of some white person, or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said Negro, and blacks were required to have permits to travel and to obey a curfew. Florida's code provided that a person of color who refused or neglected to fulfill his terms of a labor contract by willful disobedience of orders, wanton impudence, or disrespect to his employer, (Wilson, et al, 23) was to be treated as a vagrant, and made 'enticement — competition among planters that might bid up the wages of freedmen—a misdemeanor. Georgia's i866 code prohibited enticing by higher wages but was not race-specific. Apprenticeship and ...