Black Codes: Slavery Under a New Name During Reconstruction (opens in new tab)

The Black Codes were a series of racist and discriminatory policies enacted by several former slave states in the United States during the early years of the Reconstruction Era (circa 1865-1877). Rooted in earlier vagrancy laws and slave codes, the Black Codes established a new form of quasi-slavery by restricting Black freedoms, denying Black people equal political rights, and resubjugating freed men and women to forced labor. Outrage over the Black Codes by Northerners and Radical Republica...