Slave Codes
By Cathy Pearl
1
Slave owners did anything that they could to keep
slaves from running away. They did not want the slaves to
do or learn anything that might help them. One way the
owners did this was with laws called slave codes.
able to read a train schedule or use a map. This would make
it harder for the slaves to go North.
10
Slave codes were laws that were passed in states in the
South. The laws tried to keep slaves from running away or
fighting back. Each state had different laws. But all of the
laws had parts that were the same.
Slaves were made to follow the slave codes in many
different ways. They could be whipped or branded. They
were even locked in jails. The slaves could also be killed,
but this didn't happen very often. Slaves were property.
Owners did not kill the slaves because they would lose
money.
3
11
2
In the laws, the color line was very clear. If you had
one African American person in your ancestry, you were
black. It didn't matter how long ago that person had lived.
Slave codes were not always enforced. But if there
were signs of problems, the state would be told. The slave
codes would then be enforced to stop any problems before
they started.
4
Whether or not you were a slave depended on what
your mother was. If your mother was a slave, you were a
slave. It didn't matter if your father was a free man. This
made slavery permanent for any slave family. A child born
to a slave was always a slave.
5
Slaves had very few legal rights. If slaves were badly
treated, they couldn't bring charges against their owners. In
court, they couldn't talk about a white man. They couldn't
own any property. If they were attacked, the slaves could
not hit a white person.
6
Slaves could not gather in a group larger than three
people. This was to keep them from making plans to fight
back or to run away. They weren't allowed to leave their
owner's land. If the owner let them leave, the slaves needed
to carry cards or pieces of paper that said they had the
owner's permission.
7
Slave codes made it a crime for slaves to learn how to
read or write. This code wasn't always followed. There
were women who would teach the slaves in the house how
to read. This had to be done secretly.
8
Marriages are a type of contract. Slaves could not make
contracts under the slave codes. This meant that the
marriages were not legal in the eyes of the law. A marriage
did not help protect the slaves. It also did not keep a
married slave from being sold to other owners.
9
Owners hoped all of these laws would make it hard for
slaves to escape or fight back. By not being able to read,
the owners thought it would be harder for slaves to find
help if they ran away. They thought the slaves would not be
12
All of the slave codes had parts that talked about freed
slaves. The codes had rules about how the freed slaves
moved around and even what kind of jobs that they could
have. Many of them had to leave the state after they were
freed. Slave owners didn't want their slaves to get any ideas
about freedom.
13
The slave codes were in effect until the Civil War.
After the Civil War, new laws were made to keep African
Americans from having the same rights as white men and
women. It would take almost one hundred more years for
African Americans to gain all of the rights that other
citizens in the United States had.
Slave Codes
1. Slaves were allowed to learn to read
and write.
False
True
2. A child born to a slave was always:
A slave
Free
3. How could slaves be made to follow
the codes?
4. Slaves could not own any:
Shoes
Clothing
Property
5. Slaves could not gather in a group
larger than how many people?
Three
Two
Four
6. Owners thought that the laws would
make it hard for slaves to do what?
If you had been a slave, how would you have reacted to the slave codes? ( At least
3 COMPLETE SENTENCES)
Do you think the slave codes made it harder for slaves to run away? Why or why
not? ( At least 3 COMPLETE SENTENCES)