The Black Codes, also called the Black Laws, were racially segregationist and discriminatory U.S. state laws that limited the freedom of Black Americans but not of white Americans. The first Black Codes applied to "free Negroes", i.e., Black people who lived in states where slavery had been abolished or who lived in a slave state but were not enslaved. After chattel slavery was abolished throughout the United States in 1865, former slave states in the U.S. South enacted Black Codes to restrict all black citizens, especially the emancipated freedmen who no longer were subject to control by slaveholders.
Since the colonial period, colonies and states had passed laws that discriminated against free blacks. In the South, these were generally included in "slave codes"; the goal was to suppress the influence of free Blacks (particularly after slave rebellions) because of their potential influence on slaves. Free men of color were denied the vote in the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1835. Laws prohibited activities such as bearing arms, gathering in groups for worship, and learning to read and write.
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, participate equally with the whites, in the exercise of civil and political rights."
Before the Civil War, a half dozen of the Northern states that had prohibited slavery also enacted laws similar to the slave codes and the later Black Codes: Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in Early Ohio by Stephen Middleton. (2005. Ohio University Press) (https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/The+Black+Laws and New York enacted laws to discourage free Blacks from residing in those states. They were denied equal political rights, including the right to vote, the right to attend public schools, and the right to equal treatment under the law. Some of the Northern states that had such laws repealed them around the same time that the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished by constitutional amendment.
In the first two years after the Civil War, white legislatures passed Black Codes modeled after the earlier slave codes. (The name "Black Codes" was given by "Negro leaders and the Republican organs", according to historian John S. Reynolds.James Calvin Hemphill, "John Schreiner Reynolds", Men of Mark in South Carolina: Ideals of American Life Vol. II; Washington, D.C.: Men of Mark Publishing Co., 1908.Kermit L. Hall, "Political Power and Constitutional Legitimacy: The South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials" ; Emory Law Journal 33, Fall 1984.John S. Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina; Columbia, SC: State Co., 1905; p. 27) Black Codes were part of a larger pattern of Democrats trying to maintain political dominance and suppress the freedmen, newly emancipated African Americans. They were particularly concerned with controlling movement and labor of freedmen, as slavery had been replaced by a free labor system. Although freedmen had been emancipated, their lives were greatly restricted by the Black Codes. The defining feature of the Black Codes was broad vagrancy law, which allowed local authorities to arrest freed people for minor infractions and commit them to involuntary labor. This period was the start of the convict lease system, also described as "slavery by another name" by Douglas Blackmon in his 2008 book of this title.Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, New York: Doubleday, 2008
Background Vagrancy laws date to the end of feudalism in Europe. Introduced by aristocratic and landowning classes, they had the dual purpose of restricting access of "undesirable" classes to public spaces and of ensuring a labor pool. Serfs were not emancipated from their land.Stewart, White Codes and Broken Femurs (1998), pp. 2257–2258. The earliest anti-begging laws emerged shortly after the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. In 1547, anti-vagrancy laws were introduced to combat homelessness, which had surged following Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries. Elizabethan laws aimed at beggars, suspected witches, conjurers, and gypsies similarly failed to alleviate homelessness, which only increased with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the enclosure movement that displaced many from their land. The Vagrant Act of 1744, enacted by King George II, established a framework for modern vagrancy law, categorizing individuals into groups such as the unemployed without means of support, those refusing to work for standard wages, and "incorrigible rogues"—those with prior convictions.
The category of 'rogues and vagabonds' allowed authorities to detain anyone they found objectionable on the streets. This broad definition encompassed anyone without visible means of support, including those feigning job searches, beggars, and "unlicensed pedlars, fencers, jugglers, bearwards, minstrels, fortune tellers, and gamesters." It also included individuals wandering in public spaces without a satisfactory explanation. Actors and street performers were particularly vulnerable; the Act targeted anyone who performed for hire without legal authorization, making street theatre and even reciting Shakespeare grounds for arrest. Incentives for apprehending beggars and vagrants had been in place since 1713, with parish overseers obligated to pay five shillings to anyone who detained an "Idle or Disorderly Person." This system led to significant abuse and corruption; one overseer in Hornsey captured over 500 individuals in a single year. Constables often colluded with offenders to split the rewards, and entire families would sometimes turn themselves in for a share. By 1752, pamphleteers were demanding even harsher penalties amid fears that vagrants would evolve into more serious criminals, like pickpockets and highwaymen. One commentator lamented that, despite efforts to punish felons, new "Hydra's heads" continually would emerge as long as idle vagrants were allowed to roam freely. It took about 50 years for society to recognize that incentivizing the capture of vagrants was not an effective solution. The rewards were reduced and ultimately abolished in 1822, by which time the vagrant population had swelled due to homeless sailors, veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, and individuals displaced by industrialization.Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760The history of the Vagrancy Act 1824 Retrieved 22 MAY 2025
Before the Civil War
Southern states "Black Codes" in the antebellum South strongly regulated the activities and behavior of Blacks, especially free Blacks, who were not considered citizens. Chattel slaves basically lived under the complete control of their owners, so there was little need for extensive legislation. "All Southern states imposed at least minimal limits on slave punishment, for example, by making murder or life-threatening injury of slaves a crime, and a few states allowed slaves a limited right of self-defense."Ranney, In the Wake of Slavery (2006), p. 15. As slaves could not use the courts or sheriff, or give testimony against a white man, in practice, these meant little.
North Carolina restricted slaves from leaving their plantation; if a male slave wished to court a female slave on another property, he needed a pass in order to pursue this relationship. Without one, he risked severe punishment at the hands of the patrollers.
Free Blacks presented a challenge to the boundaries of white-dominated society. In many Southern states, particularly after Nat Turner's insurrection of 1831, they were denied the rights of citizens to assemble in groups, bear arms, learn to read and write, exercise free speech, or testify against white people in Court.Forte, "Spiritual Equality" (1998), p. 579–580.Painter, Creating Black Americans (2005), pp. 79–81. After 1810, states made manumissions of slaves more difficult to obtain; in some states, an act of the legislature was required for each case of manumission. This sharply reduced the incidence of planters freeing slaves.
In addition, all of the slave states passed anti-miscegenation laws, banning the marriage of white and Black people.
Between 1687 and 1865, Virginia enacted more than 130 slave statutes, among which were seven major slave codes, with some containing more than fifty provisions.
Maryland passed vagrancy and apprentice laws, and required Blacks to obtain licenses from whites before doing business.Ranney, In the Wake of Slavery (2006), p. 17. "Between 1795 and 1810, Maryland enacted vagrancy laws similar to Delaware's; required free blacks to obtain certificates of good character from local officials in order to sell products or keep hunting equipment; and allowed its courts to apprentice children of destitute or unfit black parents to white masters." It prohibited the immigration of free Blacks until 1865.DuBois, Black Reconstruction (1935), p. 564. Most of the Maryland Black Code was repealed in the Constitution of 1867. Black women were not allowed to testify against white men with whom they had children, giving them a status similar to wives.
On February 8, 1820, the city of Charleston, South Carolina passed an ordinance authorizing the city to impose a "tax" of one dollar for "each and every free male Negro or person of color" who was found to be wearing a pocket watch. The same ordinance also imposed a $10 per year tax on free Black tradesmen, an $8 tax on free Black men, and a $5 tax on all free Black women residing in the city.
The Black Codes were a collection of laws implemented in the Southern United States after the Civil War, during the Reconstruction period, with the intent of limiting the rights and freedoms of newly freed African Americans. While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, these codes aimed to uphold white supremacy and control over the African-American community, revealing the entrenched racial biases and economic interests of white Southerners. The Black Codes granted African Americans some limited rights, such as the ability to own personal property and marry, but imposed strict regulations on employment, vagrancy, and social interactions. Notable provisions included making vagrancy a crime, which led to severe penalties for those who were unemployed, and banning interracial marriage. Furthermore, African Americans encountered significant barriers within the legal system, as they were prohibited from testifying against white individuals and often faced biased treatment in court. This legal structure fostered an atmosphere of fear and subservience, reminiscent of the oppressive conditions of slavery.Various Selections of Black Codes in the South Retrieved 22 MAY 2025
Northern states
As the abolitionist movement gained force and the Underground Railroad helped fugitive slaves escape to the North, concern about Black people heightened among Northern white people. Territories and states near the slave states did not welcome freed Black people. But north of the Mason–Dixon line, anti-Black laws generally were less severe. Some public spaces were segregated, and Black people generally did not have the right to vote. In Oregon, Black people were forbidden to settle, marry, or sign contracts. In Ohio, Black people required a certificate that they were free and a good behavior bond.