Slave Codes

To help regulate the relationship between a slave and their owner, slave codes were established. Slave codes were laws in each state defining the status of slaves and the rights of owners. Slave codes varied slightly from state to state, but most made bondage a lifelong condition and ensured that all descendants of slaves would be slaves as well. Other codes prohibited them from voting, owning property, testifying in court against whites, gathering in large numbers, traveling without permission, or marrying whites. Slave codes also gave white masters nearly total control over the lives of slaves, permitting owners to use such corporal punishments as whipping, branding, maiming, and torture. Although white masters could not legally murder their slaves, some did and were never prosecuted.
The reaction of free blacks to slave codes depended on what region they lived in. Free blacks in the South could do little to oppose them because they were restricted from travelling or assembling peacefully. In the North, free blacks opposed the slave codes by voting, writing, and buying slaves who were friends or family members.
Abolitionists started Antislavery organizations and societies. They also went about speaking against slavery. Some abolitionists, like John Brown took it to the extremes by raiding and attacking families that had slaves.
Slave codes ended with the Civil War but were replaced by other discriminatory laws known as "black codes" during Reconstruction. The black codes were attempts to control the newly freed African Americans by restricting them from engaging in certain occupations, performing jury duty, owning firearms, voting, and other pursuits. At first, the U.S. Congress opposed black codes by enacting legislation such as the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution