During the first phase of reconstruction after the Civil War, laws called Black Codes were made in the southern states.
These laws were made by the same people who had been governor when the South had seceded...rich white plantation owners who had owned slaves. These were the people who wanted slavery and were completely prejudiced against blacks. The Black Codes were mainly made so even though the slaves were officially free they weren't really free. The Black Codes were made to limit the rights of the freed slaves.
The Black Codes had three main purposes. The first was to just overall limit the rights of the blacks. They only had the right to marry, own property, work for wages, and sue for damages. This was unfair because it meant the blacks didn't get all the rights that the white people had. The biggest right they didn't get was the right to vote. This way people who the blacks were in favor of couldn't get into office.
The second purpose was to give the plantation owners a constant source of work. Blacks were only allowed to have low skill jobs like the jobs they had on the plantations before. They were also required by law to have a job or they would be arrested and made to work for the plantation owners for no wages for a short period of time. This left blacks living almost like slaves to the rich white plantation owners. This did benefit the North in one way because if the South always had a constant work force, the North wouldn't run out of cotton.
The third reason was to keep blacks at the bottom of the social chain. The first two purposes accomplished this but there was still also a lot of segregation in public places. There were different things for blacks and whites. The black children couldn't go to public school and this kept them uneducated and unable to get good jobs. One white lawmaker said, “It makes no sense to spend tax money to educate any but the superior race of man - the white race.” The Black Codes were what started segregation in the South.
