Question

The southern Black Codes: (LO 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6)

a) allowed the arrest on vagrancy charges of former slaves who failed to sign yearly labor contracts.
b) allowed former slaves to testify in court against whites and to serve on juries.
c) were some of the first laws adopted as part of Radical Reconstruction in 1867.
d) were denounced by President Johnson and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
e) pleased northerners because they saw that the rule of law was returning to the South.

Answer 1

The correct answer is A) allowed the arrest on vagrancy charges of former slaves who failed to sign yearly labor contracts.

The southern Black Codes: (LO 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6) allowed the arrest on vagrancy charges of former slaves who failed to sign yearly labor contracts.

In times of Reconstruction after the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, and years later, President Andrew Johnson, gave leeway to the southern states to do Reconstruction at their own pace. So southern politicians did not grant civil rights to African American and formes slaves. Southerners created the black codes, legislation that forced African Americans to sign a type of contract with the owners of large plantations to still working in the fields, otherwise, they had the risk of being arrested. So in reality, the end of slavery was not accepted in the southern states.