Mississippi Black Codes Essay Example

1. All of the rights in the “Mississippi Black Code” are given similarly like backhanded compliments. There’s a right that’s given, but it’s most often fowllowed by a restriction of some sort. Freed black men and women basically only received the right to rent or lease land in incorporated towns, right to legally marry other freed black men and women, and the right to be considered competent witnesses. (6)

2. I believed that the laws continually referred to “freedman, free negroes, and mulattoes” so that they could be sure that they included everyone that was not white, like the men who wrote the laws. Even mulattoes are half white, yet they still were included in the black codes.

3. These black codes definitely restricted the freedom of African Americans in the 1860’s. All “freedman, Negroes, and mulattoes” were not able to marry or even be involved with a person that was white or else both parties woulf face serious consequences. They’re also not even allowed to bear arms, one of our original basic rights. The laws are only slightly different from the laws governing slaves. If an African American is not able to pay the fine that they owe, they’re forced into practically an “indentured servitude,” forced to work for a white man under extremely slave-like conditions. (6, 8)

4. Former masters are still slightly able to control their former slaves through the Mississippi Codes. They are able to be sure that African Americans don’t do certain things. Also, the codes also restrict the freedom of some white Mississippians. White Mississippians are not allowed to be involved with any freedman, Negro or mulattoe. They also were not allowed to sell, lend, etc. firearms to African Americans. (6,8)

5. It’s obvious that white Southerners were worried about what the end of slavery meant for them. They were completely, 100% against the end of slavery, and this is some sort of a “last effort” to keep the former slaves below them. The laws wanted postemancipation