The Black Codes of North Carolina and South Carolina

Imagine the owner of a caged bird one day feeling that he is doing an injustice to the caged creature , by denying its right to fly through the air , move about freely , and to live with freedom . He decides to free ' the bird , but only with stipulations . The birds ' freedom is given with a condition that he will tie a 300 feet long thread to the feet of the bird and it can enjoy its freedom by flying within a radius of 300 feet , and only fly in certain areas for a maximum

of one hour per day

Black Codes were laws which were passed in certain states in America to control and restrict the civil rights and social liberties of former slaves

In both the North and South , Black Codes were regarded as deliberate expressions of whites who were determined to control the freedom of blacks , thereby recreating an illusion of freedom . This research examines the Black Codes of both the North and the South , and will show that they continued to keep the freed slave in slavery , and only give the them an illusion of freedom

The Negroes of America had been slaves for many centuries . The twentieth ninteenth century marks the beginning of an era which sparked an awakening of all human beings are equal theory which was to spread to other continents . In America , as this voice started getting louder and stronger , the whites were compelled , rather unwillingly , to grant that freedom to the black slaves . They granted freedom to the black slaves , by enacting laws which maintained the distinction between the white slave masters and the black slaves . Despite being legally free , the black slaves were still not free

Contrary to the popular belief , the Black Codes did not begin in 1865 . They developed over a span of half a century or more and date back to early nineteenth century in some northern states1 . In the early nineteenth century , the white Negrophobia called for statutory regulations and restrictions on free blacks who resided in or moved through their territory . In several cases this resulted in an outright ban on blacks from owning property , contracting , or taking up residence in certain states Ohio Black Codes , enacted in 1804 , were some of the first Black Codes , followed by territorial legislature of Illinois , by enacting outright prohibition on black settlers within its bs2 Article 13 of the 1851 constitution of Indiana stated that no Negro or mulatto shall come into , or settle in the state after the adoption of this constitution ' The Illinois Black Code of 1853 , extended a complete prohibition against free black settlers within its territories3

The thirteenth amendment of the constitution of America abolished slavery and the ex-slaves were now called freedmen During 1865 , every southern state passed Black Codes which restricted the freedmen , who were free but not yet citizens . The laws gave only a limited amount of second-class civil rights to freedmen4 . While each state had its own Black Codes , in general...