Basic content of black laws

All laws regarding slaves have some unique provisions. Racial distinctions were strictly stipulated in all articles. Anyone with black ancestry, whether a slave or a free citizen, was regarded as a black person. The status of children was determined by their mother, so a child born to a freedman father and a slave mother remained a slave. Slaves had almost no legal rights: courts did not accept black testimony in lawsuits involving whites; slaves could not enter into contracts or own property; even when attacked by whites, they could not fight back. There are many restrictive regulations that allow society to exercise control over slaves: slaves are not allowed to leave their master's premises without permission; they are not allowed to gather in groups without the presence of white people; they are not allowed to bring their own firearms; they are not allowed to learn culture, or transmit or transmit possess "seditious" printed matter; they are not allowed to marry. And various methods were used to force slaves to comply with these laws. If there were violations, many penalties were prescribed, such as whipping, burning or imprisonment; except in rare cases such as rape or murder of white people, the death penalty was rarely used because it meant property of destruction. There were patrols monitoring the slaves on weekdays. Even more so at night. Slave laws were not always strictly enforced, but if there was any sign of unrest, state authorities were extremely vigilant and enforcement was even more severe.

The black laws enacted immediately after the Civil War, although different from each other, were all aimed at obtaining a long-term supply of cheap labor, and they also continued to treat freed slaves as inferiors. people. There is also a law that stipulates the crime of vagrancy. This law declares that if a black man is unemployed and has no fixed address, he is a vagrant; those who are identified as vagrants can be arrested and fined; if they are unable to pay the fine, they must pay the fine within a certain period of time. Internal labor service. There were apprenticeship laws for "employed" black orphans and other black youths who relied on whites (and often their former masters) for their livelihood. Some states restricted the types of property blacks could own, while others prohibited blacks from engaging in certain businesses or skilled trades. Former slaves were not allowed to carry firearms and were not allowed to testify in court except in cases involving other black people. The law stipulated that blacks could intermarry, but intermarriage between different races was prohibited.