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 to 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 Republicans helped trigger the 'Radical' phase of Reconstruction, leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Reconstruction Acts. However, the Black Codes, part of a larger legacy of White supremacy, did not end with Reconstruction but morphed into the Jim Crow laws of the segregationist South.

The Black Codes were rooted in a long legacy of racism, classism, and White supremacy. They relied heavily on earlier vagrancy laws, which restricted the freedom of movement of those deemed to be 'vagrants.' Vagrants were usually classified as impoverished people who made their living by begging, scavenging, or thieving; ostensibly to minimize these activities, authorities were permitted to arrest anyone they deemed to be a 'vagrant' out in public places or on the streets. These laws, first implemented in late medieval England, discouraged poor peasants and serfs from traveling, effectively guaranteeing a pool of labor to manorial lords, who could now rest assured that their workers would be less likely to leave. Later, these laws were weaponized to clamp down on homelessness as well as on those deemed to come from 'undesirable' classes.

The slave codes of colonial and Antebellum America would also help inform the later Black Codes. These laws codified the racial hierarchy and White supremacy that were necessary for chattel slavery to exist. They defined enslaved people as the property of their masters, rather than as human beings, and proclaimed that a child born to an enslaved mother would also be enslaved. Although slave codes varied from state to state, many forbade enslaved people from being educated and denied them any legal or civil rights. The codes also allowed masters to whip, brand, or imprison their slaves as punishment. In the decades running up to the American Civil War, much of the American South relied on slave labor to uphold its agrarian, plantation-based economy. However, the loss of the war and the end of slavery deprived the South of much of its workforce. It was this labor shortage – combined, of course, with the legacy of slavery and White supremacy, as well as a desire to avenge the defeat of the Confederacy – that would lead to the slave codes and vagrancy laws being wound together to create the Black Codes.

By the fall of 1865, the American Civil War was over. The Emancipation Proclamation had already freed millions of enslaved people across the rebellious South, and the Thirteenth Amendment – already passed by Congress, but yet to be officially ratified – was about to free all the rest. But, as the fractured United States hurtled headlong into Reconstruction, a difficult question remained: what was to be done about the millions of freedpeople spread throughout the country? Would they be granted citizenship, and if so, would that citizenship be equal? In his final speech, given shortly after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, President Abraham Lincoln had supported giving suffrage to freedmen, or at least those who had served in Union armies. But now, Lincoln was dead, murdered by an assassin's bullet, and it was already clear that his successor, Andrew Johnson, was unequal to the herculean task that lay before him.

When Johnson had first become president in April 1865, abolitionists and freedpeople alike may have hoped that he would fulfill the wishes of his martyred predecessor and enforce Reconstruction in the South. "Treason," Johnson had once said, "must be made odious, and traitors must be punished and impoverished" (quoted in White, 35). Yet despite this big talk, Johnson was more interested in ending Reconstruction as quickly as possible than in punishing traitors. Though he maintained the federal military occupation of the former Confederate states, Johnson was quick to offer amnesty to ex-Confederates themselves, requiring them to do nothing more than swear oaths of loyalty to the Union. He constantly pushed back against the Freedmen's Bureau – a department set up specifically to help the newly emancipated – and vetoed a policy of land distribution that would have provided freedpeople with 40 acres of farmland.

The former Confederate states watched Johnson's actions with interest and soon began to push the boundaries of Reconstruction to see what they could get away with. In August, Governor William Sharkey of Mississippi created a state militia, led exclusively by ex-Confederates. Though this caused outrage amongst Unionists, Johnson sided with Mississippi, using the excuse that "the people must be trusted" (quoted in White, 53). That same month, Johnson removed the all-Black regiments from the South, claiming that the Whites found their presence humiliating and that they were an obstacle to peaceful Reconstruction. Thousands of Black soldiers were subsequently mustered out of the army. Considering Johnson's leniency to the defeated rebel states, it is hardly surprising that Mississippi felt emboldened enough to enact the first Black Code in late 1865.

The Black Codes sought to revive the plantation economy that had thrived in the Antebellum South by resubjugating freedpeople and stealing their labor. The Mississippi law, laughably titled 'An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen,' stipulated that Black people could only rent land in cities, effectively preventing them from earning a living through independent farming. Furthermore, it required that all Black people provide proof of employment in January of each year. Those who failed to do so would be considered 'vagrants' and would not only have to forfeit all the wages they had earned that year but would also face imprisonment. Additionally, the Mississippi law forbade interracial marriage between Blacks and Whites, proclaiming that "any person who shall so intermarry, shall be deemed guilty of a felony" and would be "confined in the State penitentiary for life" (quoted in constitutioncenter.org).

Mississippi's law became the blueprint that other state legislatures would soon follow. South Carolina enacted its own law in November 1865. Entitled 'Domestic Relations of Persons of Color,' it built upon the restrictions placed by Mississippi. It stipulated that all Black people working jobs other than farmers or servants must pay an annual tax between $10 and $100. This law was keenly felt in Charleston, where many Black people worked as artisans and skilled laborers, and now had to scramble to pay the tax. By 1866, most of the other former slave states had established their own versions of the Black Codes; these included Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Most included some variation of the 'vagrancy' laws, which were now used to limit Black freedom of movement. Many followed South Carolina's lead and limited Black workers to only agricultural and domestic jobs. In these instances, working hours were often defined as lasting from 'sunrise to sunset,' and White employers were allowed to physically punish their Black laborers; in Florida, White employers could even whip their Black workers for showing "impudence and disrespect" (quoted in White, 54). Tellingly, the language used in many of these Codes referred to White employers as the 'masters' of their Black laborers.

The Black Codes also weaponized apprenticeship laws against the freedpeople, using them to extract even more free labor. Traditionally, apprenticeship laws were meant to ensure that children could receive education in the trades by being 'apprenticed' to a 'master' in a craft for a certain number of years. But now, under the Black Codes, state legislatures used these apprenticeship laws as a pretext to kidnap Black children from their parents and put them to work in the fields as 'apprentices.' The Black Codes declared that, except for a handful of "industrious" and "honest" examples, freedpeople were incapable of raising their own children (ibid). Thousands of children were taken away from their parents and 'apprenticed' on plantations, oftentimes to their former masters. The Black Codes established legalized segregation across the South and, to paraphrase US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Miller, basically led to slavery under a different name. Alongside the rise of the Black Codes in 1865 to 66 came a marked rise in violence against freedpeople, which took the form of beatings, whippings, rapes, and murders.

The Black Codes caused outrage amongst Republicans and Northerners, as it became apparent that the ex-Confederates were trying to resurrect the specter of slavery. One abolitionist wondered how the South thought it could get away with this, stating that it was "a little short of madness" for the Southern lawmakers to believe that "the triumphant North…would tolerate this new slave code" (quoted in Foner, 209). The Southern leaders protested that they were not trying to undermine Reconstruction and claimed that the freedmen would never work voluntarily and needed to be coerced into doing so. According to one newspaper sympathetic to their cause, the Southern lawmakers were doing "what was best for the State and for society; ever remembering that it was a white man's State legislating for" (ibid).

The implementation of the Black Codes increased tensions at a time when the nation was gearing up for the 1866 midterm elections – the fate of Reconstruction was at stake, as the outcome would determine whether Radical Republicans could maintain control of Congress. As President Johnson embarked on a national tour, railing against his radical opponents, two major incidents of violence broke out in the South. The first incident was the Memphis Riots of 1 to 3 May 1866, which started as an altercation between White police officers and Black veterans who had recently been discharged from the federal army. It escalated into a full-blown massacre – the White officers, backed by mobs of Irish immigrants, stormed through Black neighborhoods, burning homes and schools, and assaulting freedpeople. By the time federal troops arrived to restore order, 46 Black people had been killed, and 75 had been injured. The second major incident was the New Orleans massacre of 30 July 1866, when a peaceful demonstration of freedpeople was attacked by a White mob, many of whom were ex-Confederates. At least 34 Black people were killed and 119 wounded by the rioters.

These incidents, when paired with the Black Codes themselves, demonstrated to Congress that unless something was done, the South would return to its antebellum order. The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, had already been passed, but the Radical Republican-led Congress now went even further. On 9 April, it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and a few months later, the Fourteenth Amendment; these landmark pieces of legislation defined citizenship and provided for the protection of citizens' civil rights. Essentially, they cancelled out many of the Black Codes. After winning a sweeping victory in the midterm elections, the Radical Republicans doubled down on their efforts and passed the Reconstruction Acts, which implemented martial law in each of the former Confederate states except Tennessee. The Black Codes had, therefore, spurred on the most progressive and important era of Reconstruction. It would not last. Enthusiasm for Reconstruction would eventually fade until, by 1877, it was effectively over. Building on some aspects of the Black Codes, the South would create the new segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, which would last until the mid-20th century.