discrimination1.
The federal government attempted to use many laws to protect the rights of the newlyfreed slaves, such as the Civil rights Act of 1866, which gave African Americans the rightof citizenship and forbade other states from passing their own discriminatory laws. Thisbrought on the Black codes, which restricted much of the African American lives dictatingwhere they were legally allowed to go and designated places they should be in. Thefifteenth amendment was also passed, which states that no one can be kept from votingdespite their “race”, color or past servitude. It seems to nt wanted to lay down the basicrights for the African Americans of the time, but didn’t want to give them to muchfreedom by restricting everything that they did.
It seems it was much like probation to me,giving them a little slack to see what they would do with it, but still not really trustingthem. I think the restrictions on African Americans was a good thing however, with all ofthe hatred and discrimination against blacks that was going on at the time. Restrictingwhat they could do and segregating them from the whites was probably the best thing. This separation probably saved many of the newly freed slaves lives, the separation mostlikely reduced the amount of disputes and violent eruptions between the two races ofpeople. In the end, although the laws may have seemed like they failed or brought grief tothe newly freed slaves, I feel the laws saved lives, and yet gave the African Americans anew feeling that they were a part of their country and mattered because they able to vote. I happen to think the laws passed to protect the rights of freed slaves were a success.
