Black Codes

Black codes 

Black codes were designed and developed to hold blacks back from moving ahead. This was a tactic whites used not to allow any development of the black community. This limited their freedoms extensively. When blacks became free they were forced to agree and sign a contract. This contract would make them have to work for little amounts of money and for set times. If they did not abide by these standards on the contract they would be faced with fines as well as they could be arrested. They would also get penalized for being homeless in which they may receive forced labor on a plantation. While these blacks were technically set free they were never really free. They had horrible lives because they were tortured by the whites the whole time. Imagine if you had your entire family and past generations as slaves but then you get set free to this. Although it was significantly better I don't think a modern-day human could live like this. It's crazy to me to think that people could deal with being discriminated against like they were. They had separate fountains bathrooms stores and other things everyone shares today. The only example I can come up with where I could remotely try to relate to this is if your friends were to leave you out of the plans or you got discluded from something. But this was not just once or twice this was their entire lives. The blacks and whites did not interact they existed in similar locations and some may interact with the other but the majority did not. It would be like living on two different planets. Another point I want to touch on is this tax that the blacks would have to pay in order not to have to be a farmer or servants. The blacks would have to pay anywhere from ten to one hundred dollars to bypass this rule about not having a good job. This would really affect anyone black person that is pushing to better themselves and their family. The American dream is to come over to America and be able to live how you want. The more work you put in the better the outcome as it should be, but not for the blacks they have a huge roadblock. This tax had to have been detrimental to gaining any source of extra income just because the whites were getting angry they could not keep up with some of the blacks. I'm just amazed that the blacks continued to push threw this horrible time where they could not make it much farther in society than they did when they were slaves. They basically had the most horrible lives you could imagine and then just got freed to come to this. While I'm talking about things that I find unbearable to live in I wanna touch on the fact that they had separated stores. This does not make sense to me and I don't understand why they would separate an economy. The fountains and bathrooms and little things you don’t pay for I understand them separating. But the stores don't make sense once so ever they would be so much more successful if they allowed the blacks to shop in the white stores. All the stores were owned by white people before this why would they separate them up if they could be getting paid by both sides?