Social Studies: The Black Codes
Discover how Southerners resisted the rights granted to African Americans in the years following the Civil War. In November 1865, the government that President Andrew Johnson had set up in Mississippi passed a set of oppressive laws that only applied to African Americans known as the Black Codes. Other Southern states quickly followed suit. The intent of these laws was to restrict African Americans’ freedom, and compel them to work for white employers in a situation reminiscent of slavery.
