Black Codes

E13970

The Black Codes were restrictive laws enacted in the post–Civil War American South to control and limit the rights and freedoms of newly emancipated African Americans.

Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (2)

Surface form Occurrences
Black Laws 1
Texas Black Codes 1

Statements (57)

Predicate Object
instanceOf legal system of racial control
post–Civil War legislation
racially discriminatory laws
alsoKnownAs Black Codes
surface form: Black Laws
appliedIn Southern United States
surface form: American South
basedOn antebellum slave codes
consequence criminalization of Black unemployment
forced labor through convict leasing
re-creation of conditions similar to slavery
country United States of America
surface form: United States
endTime late 1860s
followedEvent American Civil War
Emancipation Proclamation
Thirteenth Amendment
surface form: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
hasEffect institutionalization of racial segregation and inequality
limitation of economic opportunities for African Americans
reinforcement of sharecropping system
historicalPeriod Reconstruction era
implementedBy Southern state legislatures
former Confederate states
implementedIn Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
imposed apprenticeship laws binding Black children to white employers
curfews on African Americans
vagrancy laws targeting unemployed African Americans
ledTo Civil Rights Act of 1866
Fourteenth Amendment
surface form: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Reconstruction Acts of 1867
surface form: Reconstruction Acts
legalStatus state and local laws
mainSubject Black Americans
surface form: African Americans
opposedBy Benjamin F. Butler
surface form: Freedmen’s Bureau officials

Radical Republicanism
surface form: Radical Republicans
partOf history of racial segregation in the United States
purpose to control newly emancipated African Americans
to limit civil rights of freedpeople
to maintain a cheap Black labor force
to preserve white supremacy
replacedBy Jim Crow laws
required labor contracts for African American workers
restricted freedom of movement of African Americans
right of African Americans to bear arms
right of African Americans to own property
right of African Americans to serve on juries
right of African Americans to testify against whites in court
right of African Americans to vote in most Southern states
startTime 1865
studiedIn African American history
legal history of the United States

Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Black Codes alsoKnownAs Black Codes
this entity surface form: Black Laws
Jim Crow laws influencedBy Black Codes
Civil Rights Act of 1866 overrides Black Codes
this entity surface form: Texas Black Codes
Peonage Act of 1867 relatedTo Black Codes