Effects of the Amendments and the Black Codes
Introduction The end of the Civil War destroyed legal slavery but did not settle the meaning of freedom. Former Confederate states quickly enacted Black Codes that restricted African Americans’ movement, labor, legal rights, and economic independence. Congress responded through the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Reconstruction Acts, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The original essay recognized the struggle between emancipation and white efforts to preserve cheap labor,

