Final answer:
The Black Codes were laws that aimed to control the behavior and restrict the freedoms of African Americans following the Civil War. By imposing severe restrictions and vagrancy laws, these codes maintained a labor system similar to slavery and avoided formal racial integration. Mississippi and South Carolina passed some of the strictest Black Codes, which affected almost every aspect of a freed person's life.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Black Codes were a set of laws that southern governments enacted after the American Civil War to control the behavior of newly freed African Americans and reestablish antebellum power relationships. These codes granted certain rights, such as marriage and property ownership, but severely restricted fundamental freedoms. By forbidding black men from serving on juries, recognizing their testimony against white people, and imposing harsh vagrancy laws, the Black Codes sought to undermine African American autonomy. Mississippi and South Carolina were among the states that enacted particularly strict codes, which included apprenticing orphan children to their former masters and requiring freedmen to carry papers proving employment under threat of arrest, fines, or forced labor. These measures were designed to maintain a cheap labor supply and hinder racial integration, thus perpetuating a system akin to slavery in form if not in name.
In addition, the Black Codes effectively criminalized black leisure, limited mobility, and locked many into oppressive farming contracts. Vagrancy laws were particularly insidious, as they imposed severe penalties for seemingly benign activities, ensuring that freed people remained impoverished and often in debt, sustaining the prewar economic order without formally reinstating slavery.