Legislation. Mississippi. An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other purposes (1865)

Enacted on November 25, 1865, “An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other purposes” listed limited legal rights and privileges granted to Black Mississippians in the wake of the Civil War and abolition. Among these rights were access to the court system and marriage rights within the African American community. However, the law was part of the Black Codes, which were highly restrictive laws meant to prevent social or legal equality between the races after the forcible emancipation of slavery by Union forces at the end of the Civil War. The act specifically prohibited interracial marriage and declared that African Americans were required to have written evidence of a “lawful home and employment.” Any Black person charged with breaking a standing work contract was subject to arrest, significant fines, and forced labor under the employer. People convicted of persuading a Black Mississippian to leave from their labor contract also faced fines and possible imprisonment. Policies such as this spurred stronger Republican intervention in the south during Reconstruction, to better protect the rights of African Americans. (Laws of the State of Mississippi, 1865, 82–86)