Question description
Provide a comprehensive response to the question(s) below. Be sure to
draft your response in your own words (do not quote verbatim from the
textbook or internet). Should be 200 – 300 words long.
Read Chapter 15 and the information
included in the Mississippi Black Codes. Once all reading is complete, respond to the following
item(s):
During Reconstruction, Black Codes
were enacted in several former states in the Confederacy. A Republican
controlled Congress would later react to suppress these codes.
What ultimately were these codes designed to do?Precisely how did the codes aim to accomplish these
objectives?
Mississippi Black Code
Adapted from a document placed online by Jud
Sage at Northern Virginia Community College
The status of the Negro was the focal problem
of Reconstruction. Slavery had been abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, but
the white people of the South were determined to keep the Negro in his place,
socially, politically, and economically. This was done by means of the
notorious “Black Codes,” passed by several of the state legislatures.
Northerners regarded these codes as a revival of slavery in disguise. The first
such body of statutes, and probably the harshest, was passed in Mississippi in
November 1865. Four of the statutes that made up the code are reprinted below.
Source, Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at a Regular
Session of the Mississippi Legislature, held in Jackson, October, November and
December, 1965, Jackson, 1866, pp. 82-93, 165-167,
Apprentice
Law
Section 1.
Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that it
shall be the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil
officers of the several counties in this state to report to the Probate courts
of their respective counties semiannually, at the January and July terms of
said courts, all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes under the age of eighteen
within their respective counties, beats, or districts who are orphans, or whose
parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse to provide for and support
said minors; and thereupon it shall be the duty of said Probate Court to order
the clerk of said court to apprentice said minors to some competent and
suitable person, on such terms as the court may direct, having a particular
care to the interest of said minors:
Provided,
that the former owner of said minors
shall have the preference when, in the opinion of the court, he or she shall be
a Suitable person for that purpose.
Section 2.
Be it further enacted, that the said court shall be fully satisfied that
the person or persons to whom said minor shall be apprenticed shall be a
suitable person to have the charge and care of said minor and fully to protect
the interest of said minor. The said court shall require the said master or
mistress to execute bond and security, payable to the state of Mississippi,
conditioned that he or she shall furnish said minor with sufficient food and
clothing; to treat said minor humanely; furnish medical attention in case of
sickness; teach or cause to be taught him or her to read and write, if under
fifteen years old; and will conform to any law that may be hereafter passed for
the regulation of the duties and relation of master and apprentice:
Provided,
that said apprentice shall be bound
by indenture, in case of males until they are twenty-one years old, and in case
of females until they are eighteen years old.
Section 3.
Be it further enacted, that in the management and control of said
apprentices, said master or mistress shall have power to inflict such moderate
corporeal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to inflict on his or
her child or ward at common law:
Provided,
that in no case shall cruel or
inhuman punishment be inflicted.
Section 4.
Be it further enacted, that if any apprentice shall leave the employment
of his or her master or mistress without his or her consent, said master or
mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice and bring him or her before
any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said
apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress; and in the event of
a refusal on the part of said apprentice so to return, then said justice shall
commit said apprentice to the jail of said county, on failure to give bond,
until the next term of the county court; and it shall be the duty of said
court, at the first term thereafter, to investigate said case; and if the court
shall be of opinion that said apprentice left the employment of his or her
master or mistress without good cause, to order him or her to be punished, as
provided for the punishment of hired freedmen, as may be from time to time
provided for by law, for desertion, until he or she shall agree to return to
his or her master or mistress:
Provided,
that the court may grant
continuances, as in other cases; and provided, further, that if the
court shall believe that said apprentice had good cause to quit his said master
or mistress, the court shall discharge said apprentice from said indenture and
also enter a judgment against the master or mistress for not more than $100,
for the use and benefit of said apprentice, to be collected on execution, as in
other cases.
Section 5.
Be it further enacted, that if any person entice away any apprentice from
his or her master or mistress, or shall knowingly employ an apprentice, or
furnish him or her food or clothing, without the written consent of his or her
master or mistress, of shall sell or give said apprentice ardent spirits,
without such consent, said person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a high
misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof before the county court, be
punished as provided for the punishment of persons enticing from their employer
hired freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes.
Section 6.
Be it further enacted, that it shall be the duty of all civil officers of
their respective counties to report any minors within their respective counties
to said Probate Court who are subject to be apprenticed under the provisions of
this act, from time to time, as the facts may come to their knowledge; and it
shall be the duty of said court, from time to time, as said minors shall be
reported to them or otherwise come to their knowledge, to apprentice said
minors as hereinbefore provided.
Section 7.
Be it further enacted, that in case the master or mistress of any
apprentice shall desire, he or she shall have the privilege to summon his or
her said apprentice to the Probate Court, and thereupon, with the approval of
the court, he or she shall be released from all liability as master of said
apprentice, and his said bond shall be canceled, and it shall be the duty of
the court forthwith to reapprentice said minor; and in the event any master of
in apprentice shall die before the close of the term of service of said
apprentice, it shall be the duty of the court to give the preference in
reapprenticing said minor to the widow, or other member of said master’s
family:
Provided,
that said widow or other member of
said family shall be a suitable person for that purpose.
Section 8.
Be it further enacted, that in case any master or mistress of any
apprentice, bound to him or her under this act shall be about to remove or
shall have removed to any other state of the United States by the laws of which
such apprentice may be an inhabitant thereof, the Probate Court of the proper
county may authorize the removal of such apprentice to such state, upon the
said master or mistress entering into bond, with security, in a penalty to be
fixed by the judge, conditioned that said master or mistress will, upon such
removal, comply with the laws of such state in such cases:
Provided,
that said master shall be cited to
attend the court at which such order is proposed to be made and shall have a
right to resist the same by next friend, or otherwise.
Section 9.
Be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for any freedman, free
Negro, or Mulatto having a minor child or children to apprentice the said minor
child or children as provided for by this act.
Section 10.
Be it further enacted, that in all cases where the age of the freedman,
free Negro, or mulatto cannot be ascertained by record testimony, the judge of
the county court shall fix the age.
II.
Vagrancy
Law
Section 1.
Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that all
rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars, jugglers, or
persons practising unlawful games or plays, runaways, common drunkards, common
nightwalkers, 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, or habitually misspend
their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame, gaming houses, or tippling shops,
shall be deemed and considered vagrants under the provisions of this act; and,
on conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding $100, with all accruing
costs, and be imprisoned at the discretion of the court not exceeding ten days.
Section 2.
Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes in
this state over the age of eighteen years found on the second Monday in January
1966, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully
assembling themselves together either in the day or nighttime, and all white
persons so assembling with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes, or usually
associating with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or
living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mulatto,
shall be deemed vagrants; and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in the sum
of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, 150, and a
white man, $200, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, the free Negro
not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.
Section 3.
Be it further enacted, that all justices of the peace, mayors, and
aldermen of incorporated towns and cities of the several counties in this state
shall have jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy in their respective
towns, counties, and cities; and it is hereby made their duty, whenever they
shall ascertain that any person or persons in their respective towns, counties,
and cities are violating any of the provisions of this act, to have said party
or parties arrested and brought before them and immediately investigate said
charge; and, on conviction, punish said party or parties as provided for
herein. And it is hereby made the duty of all sheriffs, constables, town
constables, city marshals, and all like officers to report to some officer
having jurisdiction all violations of any of the provisions of this act; and it
shall be the duty of the county courts to inquire if any officers have
neglected any of the duties required by this act; and in case any officer shall
fail or neglect any duty herein, it shall be the duty of the county court to
fine said officer, upon conviction, not exceeding $100, to be paid into the
county treasury for county purposes.
Section 4.
Be it further enacted, that keepers of gaming houses, houses of
prostitution, all prostitutes, public or private, and all persons who derive
their chief support in employments that militate against good morals or against
laws shall be deemed and held to be vagrants.
Section 5.
Be it further enacted, that all fines and forfeitures collected under the
provisions of this act shall be paid into the county treasury for general county
purposes; and in case any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto shall fail for five
days after the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon him or her for
violation of any of the provisions of this act to pay the same, that it shall
be, and is hereby made, the duty of the sheriff of the proper county to hire
out said freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to any person who will, for the
shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and all costs:
Provided,
a preference shall be given to the
employer, if there be one, in which case the employer shall be entitled to
deduct and retain the amount so paid from the wages of such freedman, free
Negro, or mulatto then due or to become due; and in case such freedman, free
Negro, or mulatto cannot be hired out he or she may be dealt with as a pauper.
Section 6.
Be it further enacted, that the same duties and liabilities existing
among white persons of this state shall attach to freedmen, free Negroes, and
mulattoes to support their indigent families and all colored paupers; and that,
in order to secure a support for such indigent freedmen, free Negroes, and
mulattoes, it shall be lawful, and it is hereby made the duty of the boards of
county police of each county in this state, to levy a poll or capitation tax on
each and every freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, between the ages of eighteen
and sixty years, not to exceed the sum of s I annually, to each person so
taxed, which tax, when collected, shall be paid into the county treasurer’s
hands and constitute a fund to be called the Freedman’s Pauper Fund, which
shall be applied by the commissioners of the poor for the maintenance of the
poor of the freedmen, free Negroes. and mulattoes of this state, under such
regulations as may be established by the boards of county police, in the
respective counties of this state.
Section 7.
Be it further enacted, that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto
shall fail or refuse to pay any tax levied according to the provisions of the
6th Section of this act, it shall be prima facie evidence of vagrancy, and it
shall be the duty of the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free Negro, or
mulatto, or such person refusing or neglecting to pay such tax, and proceed at
once to hire, for the shortest time, such delinquent taxpayer to anyone who
will pay the said tax, with accruing costs, giving preference to the employer,
if there be one.
Section 8.
Be it further enacted, that any person feeling himself or herself
aggrieved by the judgment of any justice of the peace, mayor, or alderman in
cases arising under this act may, within five days, appeal to the next term of
the county court of the proper county, upon giving bond and security in a sum
not less than $25 nor more than $150, conditioned to appear and prosecute said
appeal, and abide by the judgment of the county court, and said appeal shall be
tried de novo in the county court, and the decision of said court shall
be final.
Civil
Rights of Freedmen
Section 1.
Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, thatall
freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes may sue and be sued, implead and be
impleaded in all the courts of law and equity of this state, and may acquire
personal property and choses in action, by descent or purchase, and may dispose
of the same in the same manner and to the same extent that white persons may:
Provided,
that the provisions of this section
shall not be construed as to allow any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to rent
or lease any lands or tenements, except in incorporated towns or cities, in
which places the corporate authorities shall control the same.
Section 2.
Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes
may intermarry with each other, in the same manner and under the same
regulations that are provided by law for white persons:
Provided,
that the clerk of probate shall keep
separate records of the same.
Section 3.
Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes who
do now and have heretofore lived and cohabited together as husband and wife
shall be taken and held in law as legally married, and the issue shall be taken
and held as legitimate for all purposes. That it shall not be lawful for any
freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for
any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto; and
any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony and, on
conviction thereof, shall be confined in the state penitentiary for life; and
those shall be deemed freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes who are of pure
Negro blood; and those descended from a Negro to the third generation
inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person.
Section 4.
Be it further enacted, that in addition to cases in which freedmen, free
Negroes, and mulattoes are now by law competent witnesses, freedmen, free
Negroes, or mulattoes shall be competent in civil cases when a party or parties
to the suit, either plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or defendants, also in
cases where freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes is or are either plaintiff or
plaintiffs, defendant or defendants, and a white person or white persons is or
are the opposing party or parties, plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or
defendants. They shall also be competent witnesses in all criminal prosecutions
where the crime charged is alleged to have been committed by a white person
upon or against the person or property of a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto:
Provided,
that in all cases said witnesses
shall be examined in open court on the stand, except, however, they may be
examined before the grand jury, and shall in all cases be subject to the rules
and tests of the common law as to competency and credibility.
Section 5.
Be it further enacted, that every freedman, free Negro, and mulatto shall,
on the second Monday of January 1866, and annually thereafter, have a lawful
home or employment, and shall have a written evidence thereof, as follows, to
wit: if living in any incorporated city, town, or village, a license from the
mayor thereof; and if living outside of any incorporated city, town, or
village, from the member of the board of police of his beat, authorizing him or
her to do irregular and job work, or a written contract, as provided in Section
6 of this act, which licenses may be revoked for cause, at any time, by the
authority granting the same.
Section 6.
Be it further enacted, that all contracts for labor made with freedmen,
free Negroes, and mulattoes for a longer period than one month shall be in
writing and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free Negro, or
mulatto by a beat, city, or county officer, or two disinterested white persons
of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which each party shall
have one; and said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts; and
if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before expiration of his
term of service without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year,
up to the time of quitting.
Section 7.
Be it further enacted, that every civil officer shall, and every person
may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free
Negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before
the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause, and said
officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back
every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of $5, and 10 cents per mile from
the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and the same shall be paid by the
employer, and held as a setoff for so much against the wages of said deserting
employee:
Provided,
that said arrested party, after
being so returned, may appeal to a justice of the peace or member of the board
of police of the county, who, on notice to the alleged employer, shall try
summarily whether said appellant is legally employed by the alleged employer
and his good cause to quit said employer; either party shall have the right of
appeal to the county court, pending which the alleged deserter shall be
remanded to the alleged employer or otherwise disposed of as shall be right and
just, and the decision of the county court shall be final.
Section 8.
Be it further enacted, that upon affidavit made by the employer of any
freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, or other credible person before any justice
of the peace or member of the board of police, that any freedman, free Negro,
or mulatto, legally employed by said employer, has illegally deserted said
employment, such justice of the peace or member of the board of police shall
issue his warrant or warrants, returnable before himself, or other such
officer, directed to any sheriff, constable, or special deputy, commanding him
to arrest said deserter and return him or her to said employer, and the like proceedings
shall be had as provided in the preceding section; and it shall be lawful for
any officer to whom such warrant shall be directed to execute said warrant in
any county of this state, and that said warrant may be transmitted without
endorsement to any like officer of another county, to be executed and returned
as aforesaid, and the said employer shall pay the cost of said warrants and
arrest and return, which shall be set off for so much against the wages of said
deserter.
Section 9.
Be it further enacted, that if any person shall persuade or attempt to
persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to desert from
the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of
service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free Negro, or
mulatto, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman, free
Negro, or mulatto any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor; and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than $25 and
not more than $200 and the costs; and, if said fine and costs shall not be
immediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding two
months’ imprisonment in the county jail, and he or she shall moreover be liable
to the party injured in damages:
Provided,
if any person shall, or shall
attempt to, persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to
desert from any legal employment of any person with the view to employ said
freedman, free Negro, or mulatto without the limits of this state, such person,
on conviction, shall be fined not less than $50 and not more than $1500 and
costs; and, if said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court
shall sentence said convict to not exceeding six months’ imprisonment in the
county jail,
Section
10. Be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for any freedman,
free Negro, or mulatto to charge any white person, freedman, free Negro, or
mulatto, by affidavit, with any criminal offense against his or her person or
property; and, upon such affidavit, the proper process shall be issued and
executed as if said affidavit was made by a white person; and it shall be
lawful for any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, in any action, suit, or
controversy pending or about to be instituted, in any court of law or equity of
this state. to make all needful and lawful affidavits, as shall be necessary
for the institution, prosecution, or defense of such suit or controversy.
Section 11.
Be it further enacted, that the penal laws of this state, in all cases not
otherwise specially provided for, shall apply and extend to all freedmen, free
Negroes, and mulattoes.
IV.
Penal Code
Section 1.
Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that no
freedman, free Negro, or mulatto not in the military service of the United
States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or
her county, shall keep or carry firearms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk,
or Bowie knife; and, on conviction thereof in the county court, shall be
punished by fine, not exceeding $10, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and
all such arms or ammunition shall be forfeited to the informer; and it shall be
the duty of every civil and military officer to arrest any freedman, free
Negro, or mulatto found with any such arms or ammunition, and cause him or her
to be committed for trial in default of bail.
Section 2.
Be it further enacted, that any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto
committing riots, routs, affrays, trespasses, malicious mischief, cruel
treatment to animals, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, language, or
acts, or assaults on any person, disturbance of the peace, exercising the
function of a minister of the Gospel without a license from some regularly
organized church, vending spirituous or intoxicating liquors, or committing any
other misdemeanor t e punishment of which is not specifically provided for by
law shall, upon conviction thereof in the county court, be fined not less than
$10 and not more than $100, and may be imprisoned, at the discretion of the
court, not exceeding thirty days.
Section 3.
Be it further enacted, that if any white person shall sell, lend, or
give to any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto any firearms, dirk, or Bowie
knife, or ammunition, or any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, such person or
persons so offending, upon conviction thereof in the county court of his or her
county, shall be fined not exceeding $50, and may be imprisoned, at the
discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days:
Provided,
that any master, mistress, or
employer of any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto may give to any freedman, free
Negro, or mulatto apprenticed to or employed by such master, mistress, or
employer spirituous or intoxicating liquors, but not in sufficient quantities
to produce intoxication.
Section 4.
Be it further enacted, that all the penal and criminal laws now in force
in this state defining offenses and prescribing the mode of punishment for
crimes and misdemeanors committed by slaves, free Negroes, or mulattoes be and
the same are hereby reenacted and declared to be in full force and effect
against freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes, except so far m the mode and
manner of trial and punishment have been changed or altered by law.
Section 5.
Be it further enacted, that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto
convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act shall fail-or
refuse, for the space of five days after conviction, to pay the fine and costs
imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at
public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs and
take such convict for the shortest time. (Westport, Conn., 1972) Ark. Narr.,
Vol. 8, 175- 179.
