Florida Black Codes

After Civil Governments had been reorganized under President Andrew Johnson, the southern states passed laws popularly called “black codes” which frankly differentiated between Negroes and whites. These laws were products of the “baneful heritage” of slavery which rooted in the southern mind false ideas of the Negro, including biological inferiority and innate criminality. The first and among the harshest codes, passed by Mississippi and South Carolina in late 1865, activated a storm of protest from the North. Numerous northern editors warned the South that the sentiment of the country was “firmly fixed” upon the necessity of securing complete protection for freedmen. Failure of the South to do so might result in continued military government and other painful consequences