1. SLAVERY, CANADA, AND THE LAW
DEFINITIONS
SLAVERY, CANADA, AND THE LAW

2. Slave Code Laws
Slave codes were laws each US state or colony had that defined the status of slaves and the rights of masters; the code gave slave owners near-absolute power over the right of their human property.
Virtually all codes
barred slaves from bringing court suits in their own behalf
in court, their testimony was inadmissible in cases involving whites
severely limited their rights as defendants in criminal cases
subjected them to heavier punishments than whites

3. Slave Code Laws-cont’d
All codes basically said that
slaves could make no contract nor own any property
they could not strike a white person, even if attacked by one
they could not be away from their owner's premises without permission
they could not assemble unless a white person was present
they could not be taught to read or write
they could not marry

4. Slave Code Laws-cont’d
The codes authorized masters to use force against slaves in ways that would have constituted assault, battery, and manslaughter (but not willful murder) if used against a free person.

5. Black Codes
Slavery ended after the Civil War and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. Soon after, the Southern states replaced their Slave Codes with the Black Codes.
It was still believed that Blacks were inferior.
The Codes were intended to keep the south’s cheap supply of labor, the recently emancipated slave

6. Black Codes
Most Black codes permitted the “Negro” to sue and testify in court in cases only involving “Negroes”.
Blacks were allowed to own only certain types of property.
Marriages were made legal.
But, Blacks could not bear arms.

7. Fourteenth Amendment
Northerners were outraged with the enactment of these southern Black Codes. They reacted by passing Radical Reconstruction legislation and the Fourteenth Amendment (1868). Reconstruction did away with the Black Codes.
Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment was really important in many civil rights cases involving the American Black. This section stated that:

8. Fourteenth Amendment
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

9. However…
Nowadays people believe that this section of the Fourteenth Amendment protects all the basic civil rights of any American citizen. But this wasn’t always the case for the American Black
For example, segregation was allowed to exist , even in the Washington, D.C. public schools which were under the direct control of Congress.
In fact, the writers of the Fourteenth Amendment didn’t feel that this amendment even protected the black man’s basic civil right to vote, so the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted in 1870 to guarantee this right.

10. Jim Crow laws
The name “Jim Crow” is believed to have come from a minstrel routine known originally as “Jump Jim Crow.” The author of this routine was Thomas Dartmouth, “Daddy Rice.” This minstrel routine began being performed in The term “Jim Crow” came to be a derogatory name for the American Black and represented their segregated life

11. Jim Crow-cont’d
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and They mandated segregation in all public facilities, with a "separate but equal" status for Black Americans and members of other non-white racial groups

12. Jim Crow-cont’d
Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks.
The U.S. military was segregated.
These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the Black Codes, which had also restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans