Black Codes

The Black Codes were laws put in place in the United States after the Civil War with
the effect of limiting the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks. Even though
the U.S. constitution originally discriminated against blacks (as "other persons" [1]) and
both Northern and Southern states had passed discriminatory legislation from the early
19th century, the term Black Codes is used most often to refer to legislation passed by
Southern states at the end of the Civil War to control the labor, migration and other
activities of newly-freed slaves.

In Texas, the Eleventh Legislature produced these codes in 1866, right after the United
States Civil War. The legislation reaffirmed the inferior position that slaves and free
blacks had held in antebellum Texas and was intended to regulate black labor. The
codes reflected the unwillingness of white Texans to accept blacks as equals and also
their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. Thus the codes continued legal
discrimination between whites and blacks. The legislature, when it amended the 1856
penal code, emphasized the continuing line between whites and blacks by defining all
individuals with one-eighth or more black ancestry as persons of color, subject to
special provisions in the law.[2]

The black codes were enacted immediately after the American Civil War. Though
varying from state to state, they each endeavored to secure a steady supply of cheap
labor, and continued to assume the inferiority of the freed slaves. The black codes had
their roots in the slave codes that had formerly been in effect. The premise behind
chattel slavery in America was that slaves were property, and, as such, they had few, if
any, legal rights. The slave codes, in their many loosely-defined forms, were seen as
effective tools against slave unrest, particularly as a hedge against uprisings and
runaways. Enforcement of slave codes also varied, but corporal punishment was widely
and harshly employed to great effect.[

Expansion: 1830–1860
As the abolitionist movement gained force and escape programs for slaves such as the
Underground Railroad expanded, concern about blacks heightened among some whites
in the North. Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated "No Negro or Mulatto
shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution." The 1848
Constitution of Illinois led to one of the harshest Black Code systems in the nation until
the Civil War. The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against
black immigration into the state.

All the slave states passed laws banning the marriage of whites and blacks, so-called
anti-miscegenation laws, as did several new free states, including Indiana, Illinois and
Michigan.[4] Indiana and Illinois shared borders with slave states and the southern
populations of these states had cultures that shared more values with the South across
the Ohio River than the northern populations. In several states the Black Codes were
either incorporated into or required by their state constitutions, many of which were
rewritten in the 1840s.[citation needed]
Post-Civil War
After the abolition of slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution, all former slave states adopted new Black Codes. During 1865 every
Southern state passed Black Codes that restricted the Freedmen, who were emancipated
but not yet full citizens. While they pursued re-admission to the Union, the Southern
states provided freedmen with limited second-class civil rights and no voting rights.
Southern plantation owners feared that they would lose their land. Having convinced
themselves that slavery was justified, planters feared African Americans wouldn't work
without coercion. The Black Codes were an attempt to control them and to ensure they
did not claim social equality.

The Black Codes granted African Americans certain rights, such as legalized marriage,
ownership of property, and limited access to the courts. But the Black Codes denied
them the rights to testify against whites, to serve on juries or in state militias, or to vote,
and express legal concern publicly. And, in response to planters’ demands that the freed
people be required to work on the plantations, the Black Codes declared that those who
failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners.
Some states limited the occupations open to African Americans and barred them from
acquiring land, and others provided that judges could assign African American children
to work for their former owners without the consent of their parents.[5]

These are detailed elements of the black codes of Mississippi and South Carolina:[6]

Mississippi:

"Negroes must make annual contracts for their labor in writing; if they should
run away from their tasks, they forfeited their wages for the year. Whenever it
was required of them they must present licenses (in a town from the mayor;
elsewhere from a member of the board of police of the beat) citing their places
of residence and authorizing them to work. Fugitives from labor were to be
arrested and carried back to their employers. Five dollars a head and mileage
would be allowed such negro catchers. It was made a misdemeanor, punishable
with fine or imprisonment, to persuade a freedman to leave his employer, or to
feed the runaway. Minors were to be apprenticed, if males until they were
twenty-one, if females until eighteen years of age. Such corporal punishment as
a father would administer to a child might be inflicted upon apprentices by their
masters. Vagrants were to be fined heavily, and if they could not pay the sum,
they were to be hired out to service until the claim was satisfied. Negroes might
not carry knives or firearms unless they were licensed so to do. It was an
offence, to be punished by a fine of $50 and imprisonment for thirty days, to
give or sell intoxicating liquors to a negro. When negroes could not pay the fines
and costs after legal proceedings, they were to be hired at public outcry by the
sheriff to the lowest bidder...."
South Carolina:

"In South Carolina persons of color contracting for service were to be known as
"servants," and those with whom they contracted, as "masters." On farms the
hours of labor would be from sunrise to sunset daily, except on Sunday. The
negroes were to get out of bed at dawn. Time lost would be deducted from their
wages, as would be the cost of food, nursing, etc., during absence from sickness.
Absentees on Sunday must return to the plantation by sunset. House servants
were to be at call at all hours of the day and night on all days of the week. They
must be "especially civil and polite to their masters, their masters' families and
guests," and they in return would receive "gentle and kind treatment." Corporal
and other punishment was to be administered only upon order of the district
judge or other civil magistrate. A vagrant law of some severity was enacted to
keep the negroes from roaming the roads and living the lives of beggars and
thieves."

The Black Codes outraged public opinion in the North because it seemed the South was
creating a form of quasi-slavery to negate the results of the war. After winning large
majorities in the 1866 elections, the Republicans put the South under military rule. They
held new elections in which the Freedmen could vote. Suffrage was also expanded to
poor whites. The new governments repealed all the Black Codes; they were never re-
enacted.

Segregation
As one historian has noted, "Racial segregation was hardly a new phenomenon. Before
the Civil War, when slavery had fixed the status of most blacks, no need was felt for
statutory measures segregating the races. The restrictive Black Codes, along with the
few segregation laws passed by the first postwar governments, did not survive
Reconstruction," Leon F. Litwack wrote [p. 229] in Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners
in the Age of Jim Crow, the sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning history Been in the
Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery.

[edit] Distinction from Jim Crow laws

The Black Codes of the 1860s are not the same as the Jim Crow laws. The Black Codes
were in reaction to the abolition of slavery and the South's defeat in the Civil War.
Southern legislatures enacted them in the 1860s. The Jim Crow era began later, nearer
to the end of the 19th century after Reconstruction.
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, that all 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.
Balck codes in texas
BLACK CODES. Black Codes were the laws passed by Southern state legislatures to
define the legal place of blacks in society after the Civil War. In Texas the Eleventh
Legislature produced these codes in 1866. The intent of the legislation was to reaffirm
the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in antebellum Texas and to
regulate black labor. The codes reflected the unwillingness of white Texans to accept
blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. Thus
the codes continued legal discrimination between whites and blacks. The legislature,
when it amended the 1856 penal code, emphasized the continuing line between whites
and blacks by defining all individuals with one-eighth or more African blood as persons
of color, subject to special provisions in the law.

A variety of sources provided the pattern of the new codes. Antebellum southern laws
that regulated free blacks and the laws of northern states designed to do the same
furnished the model for regulation of black civil rights, while directives of the
Freedmen's Bureau and the legislation of other Southern states supplied examples of
statutes that attempted to control black labor.

An "Act to define and declare the rights of persons lately known as Slaves, and Free
Persons of Color" (1866) functioned as the keystone of the state's civil rights legislation.
This law gave blacks, in common, basic property rights. They could make and enforce
contracts; sue and be sued; make wills; and lease, hold, or dispose of real and personal
property. The state further guaranteed blacks the rights of personal security and liberty
and prohibited discrimination against them in criminal law. This act, however,
specifically left in effect a variety of earlier legal restrictions. Blacks were not allowed
to vote or hold office, they could not serve on juries, and they could testify only in cases
involving other blacks. They could not marry whites.

These restrictions were supplemented by other legislation. The state required railroads
to provide separate accommodations for blacks, thus establishing the precedent for
segregation in public facilities. An education law specifically excluded blacks from
sharing in the public school fund. The state's homestead law prohibited the distribution
of public land to blacks.

Laws designed to reestablish control over black workers were more complex, since the
legislature faced the problem of securing this goal without restoring slavery. The result
was a set of interrelated statutes that gave local authorities and landowners the ability to
coerce free labor with the threat of forced labor. Although many of these laws made no
specific mention of race, they were primarily aimed at and enforced against blacks. The
first law passed to accomplish the legislature's goal was the apprentice law. This act
made possible the apprenticing of minors, either with parental consent or through the
order of the county court. They required masters to provide food, clothing, medical
attention, humane treatment, and education for some trade or occupation, which could
include farm labor. In turn, a master had the use of the apprentice's labor and the power
to inflict corporal punishment to ensure work. The law allowed masters to pursue
runaways and levied heavy fines against persons who interfered with apprentice
obligations. Exclusive jurisdiction over enforcement of this law rested with the county
court.

The contract law also strengthened the position of local economic interests. Under it, all
labor agreements that involved work for more than one month had to be in writing and
filed with the county court. Workers were given a lien on half a crop to ensure the
payment of wages. Employers, however, were given strong guarantees for the delivery
of labor, particularly in the power to deduct wages for such contract violations as
disobedience, waste of time, theft or destruction of property, or absence from home
without permission. Local control over contract issues was certain, for authority over
these matters was given to a court consisting of a local justice of the peace and two
landowners.

A vagrancy law allowed local courts to arrest people whom they defined as idle, fine
them, and contract their labor if they could not pay the fine. Under this law minor
vagrants could be apprenticed. Local courts received the power to put such convicts to
work at any type of labor until the fine was paid. Local authorities received even more
power by a law that authorized them to put to work at any employment persons
sentenced to county jails for any misdemeanor or petty offence. The vagrancy law and
the convict-labor law provided the key means of intimidating freedmen into either
apprentice or contract labor.

The black codes never fully accomplished their goals. On January 3, 1867, Gen. Joseph
B. Kiddoo of the Freedmen's Bureau declared the contract law biased against freedmen
and prevented its enforcement. This made the other labor codes useless. Restrictions on
civil rights crumbled with the beginning of congressional Reconstruction in March 1867
and the registration of blacks as voters. Only segregation survived, despite attacks upon
the practice throughout Reconstruction. The most immediate effect of the codes thus
had been not to accomplish any of their intended results, but to hasten the end of
presidential Reconstruction and lead to new federal intervention under the direction of
Congress.
AFRICAN AMERICANS. People of African descent are some of the oldest residents
of Texas. Beginning with the arrival of Estevanico in 1528, African Texans have had a
long heritage in the state and have worked alongside Americans of Mexican, European,
and indigenous descent to make the state what it is today. The African-American history
of Texas has also been paradoxical. On the one hand, blacks have worked with others to
build the state's unique cultural heritage. But on the other hand, African Americans have
been subjected to slavery, racial prejudice, and exclusion from the mainstream of state
institutions. Their contributions to the state's development and growth in spite of these
obstacles have been truly remarkable.

From the beginning of European settlement in Texas, people of African descent were
present. In 1528 Estevanico, a Moor, accompanied Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca across the territory known today as Texas. Estevanico was an important
member of Cabeza de Vaca's mission because he could interpret the languages of many
of the Indians that the expedition encountered. Along with the other members of the
expedition he was captured by Indians and enslaved for five years. After escaping,
Estevanico and the surviving members of the expedition made their way to Mexico. In
1539 he accompanied a second expedition into the Southwest. This time he was
murdered by the Zuñi Indians and the mission failed. Other pioneer Africans
accompanied the Spanish into the Southwest, and some settled with them in the region
known today as Texas. By 1792 Spanish Texas numbered thirty-four blacks and 414
mulattoes. Some of them were free men and women.

Unlike Estevanico and some of the Africans who inhabited the province prior to
settlement by Anglo-Americans, most African Americans entered the area as slaves.
The first Anglo-Americans who settled in Texas came from the southern United States
and were accustomed to using African slaves as an important source of labor. During
the first fifteen years of white settlement in Texas, from 1821 to the Texas Revolution
of 1836, slavery grew very slowly. On the eve of the Revolution only about 5,000
blacks were enslaved in Texas. With independence from Mexico, however, whites made
African slavery an integral part of the state's economic development, and the institution
of slavery grew rapidly. By 1840, 11,000 African Americans were enslaved in Texas.
By 1850, 58,000 were enslaved, and by 1860, 182,000—30 percent of the Texas
population. According to historian Randolph Campbell, slavery in Texas was similar to
that in other parts of the American South. The records gathered by Campbell as well as
the testimony of African Americans enslaved in Texas attest to the fact that black slaves
in Texas had as harsh and as easy a lot as slaves in other parts of the South. Two cases
illustrate this fact. In 1861 a Canadian newspaper published the story of Lavinia Bell, a
black woman who had been kidnapped at an early age and sold into slavery in Texas.
She escaped from bondage and told of being forced to work naked in the cottonfields
near Galveston. She also told about how after her first escape attempt, she was
physically mutilated and beaten severely by her owner. Other African Americans who
were enslaved in Texas told similar stories of violence and cruelty by their owners.
Hundreds sought escape, especially to Mexico. But there were also cases such as that of
Joshua Houston, one of the slaves of Sam Houston. Joshua, owned initially by
Houston's second wife, became an important member of Houston's family. He was
treated well, taught to read and write, and prepared well for his eventual emancipation
by the Houston family. After the Civil War Joshua became a politician in Huntsville,
and, as if to underscore his loyalty to his former owners, on one occasion he offered to
lend money to Sam Houston's widow when she faced financial difficulties.

While the treatment of African Americans enslaved in Texas may have varied on the
basis of the disposition of individual slaveowners, it was clear that white Texans in
general accepted and defended slavery. Moreover, slavery in Texas had all of the
characteristics that had made it successful in other parts of the South. For instance,
slaveholders dominated the state's economic and political life. The government of the
Republic of Texas and, after 1845, the state legislature passed a series of slave codes to
regulate the behavior of slaves and restrict the rights of free blacks. The census counted
about 400 free blacks in 1850, although there may have been close to 1,000. White
Texans also restricted the civil liberties of white opponents of slavery in order to
suppress dissent about the institution. When rumors of a slave insurrection circulated in
the state in 1860, Texans virtually suspended civil liberties and due process in the state.
Suspected abolitionists were expelled from the state, and one was even hanged. A
vigilante group in Dallas lynched three African-American slaves who were suspected of
starting a fire that burnt most of the downtown area. Other slaves in the county were
whipped.

The Texas vote for secession in February 1861 hastened the end of slavery and set in
motion the eventual liberation of the state's African-American population. For blacks in
Texas, freedom did not come until Juneteenth, June 19, 1865. In contrast to other parts
of the South, where the approach of the Union Army encouraged thousands of enslaved
blacks to free themselves and run away, Texas blacks remained enslaved until the end
of the Civil War. Few were able to run away and enlist in the Union Army, as black
men did in other parts of the South.

The Reconstruction era presented black Texans another challenge. Many had to rebuild
their lives, locate lost family members, and begin to live their lives as self-sufficient,
free men and women. The establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau in the state aided this
transition from slavery to freedom. But given the continuing racial animosity that
separated blacks and whites after the war, this was not an easy task. The state legislature
and several Texas cities passed Black Codes to restrict the rights of blacks, to prevent
them from having free access to public facilities, and to force them back to the rural
areas as agricultural laborers. The use of the political and legal system to regulate black
behavior was accompanied by a literal reign of terror in the state. From 1865 to 1868
white Texans committed over 1,500 acts of violence against blacks; more than 350
blacks were murdered by whites. These were attempts to reestablish white supremacy
and to force blacks back into their "place." Only the intervention of Congress and the
imposition of military rule in the state after 1867 eliminated the Black Codes and
brought a modicum of safety to African Americans. The arrival of military and
Congressional efforts to protect black rights ushered in the second phase of
Reconstruction in the state. In this period African Americans made a substantial
contribution to the transition of Texas from a slave-labor state to one based on free
labor. Ten African-American delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1868–69
helped to write a constitution that protected civil rights, established the state's first
public education system, and extended the franchise to all men. Between 1868 and
1900, forty-three African Americans served in the state legislature, and they helped to
move the state toward democracy. Such black Reconstruction leaders as George T.
Ruby and Norris Wright Cuneyqqv became important members of the Republican party
and, along with other blacks, dominated state Republican politics through the turn of the
twentieth century. During the course of the Reconstruction period, many African
Americans moved from the state's rural areas to cities such as Dallas, Austin, Houston,
and San Antonio. On the outskirts of these cities they established "freedmantowns,"
which became the distinct black neighborhoods that still exist today. Black labor also
contributed substantially to the economic development of these cities and helped the
state to begin the transition from its near-total dependence on agriculture to
industrialization. In 1879 a few thousand black Texans moved to Kansas seeking greater
opportunities. Other black Texans participated in the postwar cattle boom (see BLACK
COWBOYS), while the presence on the frontier of black soldiers, called Buffalo
Soldiers by their Indian foes, exemplified the desire of many blacks to enter into the
military responsibilities of citizenship.

As in other parts of the South, Reconstruction lasted only a short time in Texas.
Democrats regained control of the state in 1873 and proceeded to reverse many of the
democratic reforms instituted by black and white Republicans. Between 1874 and 1900
the gains that African Americans had made in the political arena were virtually lost. In
the 1890s, for example, more than 100,000 blacks voted in Texas elections. But after the
imposition of a poll tax in 1902 and the passage of the white primary law in 1903, fewer
than 5,000 blacks voted in the state in 1906. In addition, segregation was established in
all facets of public and private life in Texas for African Americans. In Dallas, Houston,
and San Antonio, public transportation and accommodations, schools, and, eventually,
neighborhoods were segregated by law. Blacks in Houston and San Antonio challenged
segregation on public transportation by forming their own bus and jitney companies.
Dallas blacks won a case in 1916 that overturned a residential segregation ordinance.
But nothing succeeded in stemming the tide of segregation that restricted the rights of
black Texans by the early twentieth century. The victims of lynching, which did not end
until the 1940s, were predominantly black. Riots destroyed black neighborhoods.
African Americans became disfranchised, second-class citizens, denied the basic human
rights other citizens in the state took for granted. As a result, several thousand black
Texans moved out of the state to the North and West in the twentieth century. Although
the percentage of blacks in Texas fell to 20 percent of the population by 1900 and
declined further in the twentieth century, their numbers grew to more than 600,000 in
1900 and 900,000 in 1940.

Despite their second-class status, African Americans still built viable and progressive
communities throughout the state. Almost immediately after Civil War, they established
churches, schools, and other social organizations to serve their own needs. They
established newspapers (the Dallas Express, Houston Informer and Texas Freeman, and
San Antonio Registerqqv), grocery stores, funeral homes, and other business
establishments that served a predominant African-American clientele. In the late
nineteenth century black farmers formed a cooperative to encourage black land
ownership and to raise crop prices. From 1900 to 1940 a majority of black Texans
remained in farming, with about 20 percent owning their land while most rented farms
as tenants. The Great Depression of the 1930s hastened a trend toward urbanization. In
the same period blacks in Dallas organized a cotton-processing mill, but it failed in less
than five years. These self-help and economic development efforts by black Texans
indicate that they did not allow the oppression of white racism to deter them from
striving to build successful communities. After the Civil War, African Americans also
developed their first educational institutions. Black colleges such as Bishop, Paul
Quinn, and Wiley were founded by several religious denominations, primarily Baptist
and Methodist organizations. African-American churches such as Boll Street African
Methodist Episcopal in Dallas also started the first schools in that city for black
children. The city of Houston provided schools for its black citizens beginning in 1871.
By 1888 the city government in Dallas followed suit.

African Americans also contributed to the state's social and cultural heritage in the late
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Musicians such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie
(Leadbelly) Ledbetter, Eddie Durham, Scott Joplin,qqv Bobbi Humphrey, and many
others became innovators in blues, jazz,qqv and ragtime. Singers such as Julius L. C.
Bledsoe and Osceola Mays sang songs from the African-American folk tradition as well
as their own contemporary compositions. Such writers as Maude Cuney-Hare, J. Mason
Brewer, and Sutton Griggsqqv wrote biographies and novels and recorded the folklore of
black Texans. Artist John Biggers of Houston became one of the nation's most
important mural painters and an internationally recognized artist. In sports, such black
Texans as Charlie Taylor, Ernie Banks, Jack Johnson, and George Foreman earned
national fame in football, baseball, and boxing. After the integration of the state's
universities, black Texas athletes such as Earl Campbell of the University of Texas at
Austin, Elvin Hayes of the University of Houston, and Jerry Levias of Southern
Methodist University had outstanding college athletic careers.

One of the most significant achievements of blacks in the state was their participation in
the Texas Centennial of 1936. This event was important because it allowed African
Americans to highlight the contributions that they had made to the state's and the
nation's development. Through the efforts of A. Maceo Smith of the Dallas Negro
Chamber of Commerce and Samuel W. Houston of Huntsville, the Hall of Negro Life
was built at Fair Park in Dallas to bring to the state the works of Harlem Renaissance
painter Aaron Douglass as well as to exhibit the paintings of Texas artists Samuel A.
Countee of Houston and Frank Sheinall of Galveston. More importantly, the Negro Day
event held in Dallas as the black celebration of the Texas Centennial proved to be an
important opportunity for black Texans to meet and plan strategy to end the segregation
and discrimination that they faced. Three organizations emerged from the Negro Day
celebration of 1936: the Texas State Conference of Branches of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Texas State Negro Chamber of
Commerce, and the Texas Negro Peace Officers Association (now the Texas Peace
Officers Association). All three organizations had as their objective to improve the lot
of blacks in Texas.

The Texas Centennial was indeed a watershed event for African Americans. After it
they launched a campaign to win the citizenship rights that the state's segregation laws
and racist tradition denied them. Texas blacks won two of the nation's most significant
civil-rights cases. They renewed challenges to the state's white primary system four
times, and, eventually, they won a Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Allwright (1944),
which declared the white primary unconstitutional. This landmark case won by black
Texans opened primaries for blacks throughout the South. In 1950, black Texans also
won one of the major legal cases that eliminated segregation in the South's graduate and
professional schools. The Sweatt v. Painter case, filed by Thurgood Marshall, legal
counsel of the NAACP, and local NAACP attorney William J. Durham of Dallas,
forced the University of Texas Law School to admit black students. Although the
Sweatt case was one of several cases that the NAACP filed to gain entry for black
students into graduate and professional schools, it also became one of the cases that laid
the groundwork for the NAACP's challenge to segregation in public schools in the
famous Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas case.

Despite the notion among some historians that Texas did not need a civil-rights
movement to end its legacy of racial discrimination, African Americans had to use both
the courts and direct action in the 1950s and 1960s to win access to public services
throughout the state. Using a variety of methods, black citizens won the right to sit on
juries, equal pay for equal work for black teachers, the elimination of residential
segregation in the state's major cities, jobs on the police forces of Dallas and Fort
Worth, and open seating on public transportation throughout the state. They also used
sit-ins in Houston and Marshall to end segregation in public accommodations. By the
mid-1960s, only one area of citizenship rights continued to elude black Texans: serving
in elective office. In 1958, Houstonian Hattie White became the first African American
to win an elective office in the state since Reconstruction by winning a seat on the
school board. But many citizens thought that she was white and voted for her in error.
She served ten turbulent years on the Houston school board, fighting constantly to force
other members of the board to implement court-ordered desegregation of the school
system. After Mrs. White's election black Texans did not win another elective office
until 1966, when several black candidates throughout the state won political races.
Among the pioneers were Joe Lockridge of Dallas, who won a seat in the state house of
representatives, and Barbara Jordan of Houston, who won a seat in the Texas Senate. In
1971, Judson Robinson became Houston's first black city councilman since
Reconstruction. A year later Barbara Jordan was elected to the United States House of
Representatives, thus becoming the first African American in Texas history to represent
the state in Congress.

Her election symbolized the progress that blacks had made in the state after over 100
years of racial segregation and exclusion. Despite the lingering effects of the old racist
and segregationist legacy, African Americans continued to achieve in both the private
and public spheres in the state. They won elective office on the city, county, and
statewide levels. In 1992, for example, Morris Overstreet of Amarillo became the first
African American to win a statewide office when he was elected a judge on the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals. Employment opportunities also increased significantly for
black Texans, especially in the larger urban areas such as Dallas and Houston. In 1983,
for instance, Dallas was named "one of the ten best cities for blacks" because of the
social, political, and economic opportunities available there for African Americans. In
addition, African Americans continued to participate in the state's social and cultural life
and to add their creative talents to the state's as well as the nation's artistic development.
Two of many examples are the works added to American literature by Houston
playwright and author Ntozake Shange and short story writer J. California Cooper of
East Texas. Shange's work "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the
rainbow is enuf" played on Broadway and toured the country for several years. Her
novels Sassafras, Cypress, and Indigo (1982) and Betsey Brown (1985) were national
best-sellers. Cooper's short stories in A Piece of Mine (1984) and Family (1991) also
earned her national acclaim.

These achievements were the result of black Texans' ongoing struggle for equal
opportunity and human dignity. African Americans have lived in the area known as
Texas as long as any other ethnic group except American Indians. Throughout their
history in the state, they have contributed their blood, sweat, and hard labor to make
Texas what it is in the 1990s. Although the 2,000,000 black Texans in 1990 formed
only 12 percent of the state's population, blacks had made major contributions to Texas
history and culture. The previous thirty years of African-American history in Texas had
been quite eventful. During that period black citizens had taken major steps toward
reversing the negative aspects of the previous 100 years. Yet, they had only begun to
reap the benefits of their labor and persistence.