Final answer:
Black Codes were laws that restricted the civil rights and opportunities of freedmen after the Civil War, limiting their freedom and maintaining white supremacy in post-slavery Southern society.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Black Codes did not present equality for the freedmen; instead, they restricted civil rights and opportunities for them. These state laws were established during the Reconstruction era in the American South, with the intent to maintain the social and economic structure of racial slavery, despite the legal end of slavery itself. Black Codes effectively minimized the newly acquired freedoms of African Americans by imposing severe restrictions such as denying the right to vote, serve on juries, carry weapons, and restricting access to education, property, and fair labor contracts.
In fact, some Black Codes were equivalent to 'slavery by another name,' as they criminalized black leisure, restricted mobility, and forced many into exploitative labor contracts. Mississippi's vagrant law, for instance, could result in African Americans being fined and, if unable to pay, hired out to anyone willing to cover the cost, echoing the exploitative relationships of the pre-Civil War era. These discriminatory practices were so egregious that Congress responded by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to try to protect the rights of freedmen and override the Black Codes.