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The American Yawp Reader

Mississippi Black Code, 1865

Mississippi Black Code, 1865

Many southern governments enacted legislation that reestablished antebellum power relationships.

South Carolina and Mississippi passed laws known as Black Codes to regulate black behavior and

impose social and economic control. While they granted some rights to African Americans – like the

right to own property, to marry or to make contracts – they also denied other fundamental rights.

Mississippi’s vagrant law, excerpted here, required all freedmen to carry papers proving they had

means of employment. If they had no proof, they could be arrested, �ned, or even re-enslaved and

leased out to their former enslaver.

Vagrancy Law

Section 2. Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes in this state over the

age of eighteen years found on the second Monday in January 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful

employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together either in the day or

nighttime, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes, or usually

associating with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or

fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants; and, on convic-

tion thereof, shall be �ned in the sum of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free Negro, or mu-

latto, 150, and a white man, $200, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, the free Negro not

exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months….

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Section 7. Be it further enacted, that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto shall fail or refuse to

pay any tax levied according to the provisions of the 6th Section of this act, it shall be prima facie evi-

dence of vagrancy, and it shall be the duty of the sheri� to arrest such freedman, free Negro, or mu-

latto, or such person refusing or neglecting to pay such tax, and proceed at once to hire, for the

shortest time, such delinquent taxpayer to anyone who will pay the said tax, with accruing costs, giv-

ing preference to the employer, if there be one.

Section 8. Be it further enacted, that any person feeling himself or herself aggrieved by the judgment

of any justice of the peace, mayor, or alderman in cases arising under this act may, within �ve days,

appeal to the next term of the county court of the proper county, upon giving bond and security in a

sum not less than $25 nor more than $150, conditioned to appear and prosecute said appeal, and

abide by the judgment of the county court, and said appeal shall be tried de novo in the county

court, and the decision of said court shall be �nal.

Civil Rights of Freedmen

Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that all freedmen, free Negroes,

and mulattoes may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all the courts of law and equity of

this state, and may acquire personal property and choses in action, by descent or purchase, and may

dispose of the same in the same manner and to the same extent that white persons may:

Provided, that the provisions of this section shall not be construed as to allow any freedman, free

Negro, or mulatto to rent or lease any lands or tenements, except in incorporated towns or cities, in

which places the corporate authorities shall control the same….

Section 7. Be it further enacted, that every civil o�cer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry

back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the ser-

vice of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause,

and said o�cer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting

employee aforesaid the sum of $5, and 10 cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of deliv-

ery, and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a seto� for so much against the wages of

said deserting employee:

Provided, that said arrested party, after being so returned, may appeal to a justice of the peace or

member of the board of police of the county, who, on notice to the alleged employer, shall try sum-

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marily whether said appellant is legally employed by the alleged employer and his good cause to quit

said employer; either party shall have the right of appeal to the county court, pending which the al-

leged deserter shall be remanded to the alleged employer or otherwise disposed of as shall be right

and just, and the decision of the county court shall be �nal.

Penal Code

Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that no freedman, free Negro, or

mulatto not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the

board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry �rearms of any kind, or any ammunition,

dirk, or Bowie knife; and, on conviction thereof in the county court, shall be punished by �ne, not

exceeding $10, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and all such arms or ammunition shall be for-

feited to the informer; and it shall be the duty of every civil and military o�cer to arrest any freed-

man, free Negro, or mulatto found with any such arms or ammunition, and cause him or her to be

committed for trial in default of bail…

Section 4. Be it further enacted, that all the penal and criminal laws now in force in this state de�n-

ing o�enses and prescribing the mode of punishment for crimes and misdemeanors committed by

slaves, free Negroes, or mulattoes be and the same are hereby reenacted and declared to be in full

force and e�ect against freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes, except so far m the mode and man-

ner of trial and punishment have been changed or altered by law….

Section 5. Be it further enacted, that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto convicted of any of the

misdemeanors provided against in this act shall fail-or refuse, for the space of �ve days after convic-

tion, to pay the �ne and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheri� or other o�cer,

at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said �ne and all costs and take such convict for

the shortest time.

Edward McPherson, The Political History of the United States of America during the period known

as Reconstruction…. (Washington D.C.: 1871), 80-82.

Available through Google Books

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