Black Codes
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=454
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
1865 - 1866
01/12/2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video MiniDocumentary
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:02:17
Description
Professor Eric Foner of Columbia University discusses the Black Codes, which were written by white
southerners to force blacks to keep working on plantations.
Keywords
Black Codes, Reconstruction, Former Slaves, Laws, Vagrancy, Forced Labor, Andrew Johnson,
Plantation System, Civil Rights Law, Labor Contracts
Citation
MLA
"Black Codes." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 12 Jan. 2007. NBC Learn. Web. 18 March 2015
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 2
APA
2007, January 12. Black Codes. [Television series episode]. NBC News. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=454
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Black Codes" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 01/12/2007. Accessed Wed Mar 18 2015
from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=454
Transcript
Black Codes
Professor ERIC FONER (Columbia University): In 1865 and early 1866, these new governments in the
South, all-white governments created by Andrew Johnson, you know are going to have to deal with this
situation of the former slaves. What is their status going to be? What rights are they going to have? And,
so they pass these laws to regulate the conditions of the former slaves.
So, the “Black Codes” are really an attempt to use the power of the government to get the plantation
system going again. Not as slave labor – that's gone – but, as forced labor, where the blacks would be paid
some minimum wage but they would have no alternative but to go to work for white employers. They
don't go into effect. In fact, in early 1866, Congress passes the Civil Rights Law, which actually says that
all laws must apply equally to all citizens. And, that abrogates all these Black Codes, 'cause they're only
for blacks. But, there in they're important as a sign of what the white South has in mind for blacks unless
the federal government comes in and protects them.
Now, they give them some rights. They’re no longer slaves. They can't be bought and sold. Their
marriages are now going to be legally recognized as they weren't under slavery. They can own property in
some states. Actually, Mississippi barred them from owning land.
But, that's it. They had no right to vote, they had no right to serve on juries. They had no right to testify in
court in cases involving white people. They could not own guns the way white people could. And most
importantly, they had to go to work for white people. They had to sign yearlong labor contracts with a
white employer. Otherwise, they would be called vagrants, arrested, fined, and if they couldn't pay the
fine, they'd be auctioned off to some white person who could pay the fine.
So, in other words, a black guy with land working for himself – that's illegal. You've got to work for a
white employer. He'd be arrested as a vagrant and sold to a white employer, basically. They couldn't go to
work for themselves. They couldn't follow a trade, something like that. That's why Mississippi barred
them from even owning land. So, that they had no alternative but to work for white planters. So, the Black
Codes are a very, very restrictive idea of what freedom really would mean for these former slaves.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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