Black Codes and mississippi black code and 1865 and 1866

Actuated by conflicting values of defiance, sectional pride and a sense that they were offering Blacks more protections than Blacks previously enjoyed under slavery, most of the Southern States passed these Codes late in 1865 and into 1866. Some of the Codes were very brief; Mississippi's, which I consider here, was the longest. Through the Codes the states desired to regulate and define the world of the Black person after slavery. So offended were the Northern Republicans by the wording of these Codes that they were inspired to pass the Civil Rights Act in April 1866. The Mississippi Black Code contains 29 sections and is divided into three parts. I can best summarize the leading features of this Code by commenting on four issues: (1) Basic legal rights; (2) Employer rights against deserters; (2) The issue of apprenticeship; (4) The (hated) vagrancy clauses.

Basic Legal Rights

Sections 1-6 of "An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedman" give "freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes" [the latter was defined in this law as a person having a Black ancestor to the third generation inclusive--i.e., that the person had to be at least 1/8 Black] the following rights: to sue and be sued; enter into contracts; implead and be impleaded; acquire and dispose of personal property and be able to lease or rent land in incorporated areas with the approval of the town corporation [More "liberal" Black Codes allowed for outright real property ownership for Blacks]. These three categories of people could intermarry , but intermarriage to a white person was a felony, the conviction of which crime would "confine[d] [the offender] in the State penitentiary for life." These three categories of people could testify at trial, but the only way they could testify against a white person is if the white person was criminally charged with an action against the Black person, and in this case the testimony had to be given in open court (or before the grand jury).

Employment Issues

Southern Whites believed that Blacks, in general, were lazy and therefore needed legal goads to make sure they went to work. Thus, the Code required that if such a Black deserted his employ, s/he may be arrested by any civil offcier "and every person" and brought back to the employer. The payment for capturing such a runaway employee was $5 per employee and 10 cents a mile. A particular chilling example of "labor law" was if the worker left before the expiration of his or her term of service "without good cause," that person would lose all wages earned up until that time. It doesn't take much imagination to see how these provisions legalized "hunting down" of unattached free Blacks for the purpose of confining them to labor, whether or not the employer actually had employed them in the past.

Apprenticeship

Ten sections of the Code dealt with apprenticeship, which also was rather a euphemism fo reducing people to a condition that was only a step removed for slavery. Broad powers were given to all sheriffs and other county officers to report twice annually to the probate courts of their counties if there appeared to be any freedman, free negroes or mulattoes under the age of 18 "who are orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means or who refuse to provide for and support said minors." If such youths were "reported" by the authorities, it was the "duty" of the probate court to order the clerk of the court to apprentice such minors "to some competent and suitable person on such terms as the court may direct." Humanitarian language follows in the next several paragraphs.

Vagrancy

The most elastic designation that appeared in the Code is "vagrant." To catch the furious and amazaing nature of the language, I will quote the first section of this part of the Code in its entirety:

"All rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars, jugglers, or persons practicing unlawful games or plays, runaways, common drunkards, common night-walkers, pilferers, lewd, wanton, or lascivious persons, in speech or behavior, common railers and brawlers, persons who neglect their calling or employment, misspend what they earn, or do not provide for the support of themselves or their families, or dependents, and all other idle and disorderly persons, including all who neglect all lawful business, habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame, gaming-houses, or tippling shops, shall be deemed and considered vagrants..."

This wording must have been taken from a prior state statute, but its application in this context is only clear as you read the next two sections. A person whom the law considers a vagrant, and the next section gives several other things that characterize vagrancy [including white people who associate with Blacks "on terms of equality], is subject to arrest and a fine. Because the fine may be as much as $50, which no Black person could afford, the law goes on to say that anyone who isn't able to pay the fine will be hired out to anyone who is willing to pay the fine for him/her and will be required to work for that person until the fine is paid off.

Conclusion

The existence of these Codes is stark testimony to how much utter incompatibility there was between the worldviews of former slaveholders and former New England abolitionists. Is it any wonder that it took 100 more years for anything approximating or even foreshadowing true equality before the law, in employment and in voting occurred between the races in our society?

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