Negative Effects Of Slave Codes

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America was changing and growing every day and so were the slaves. The slaves getting tired of being treated like they were not people and did not take this treatment without protest. Slave rebellions formed and the slaves fought for better treatment. Unfortunately, the rebellions lead to the creation of the Slave Codes. The Slave Codes were created to limit the slaves’ freedoms even more than they were was a way to legitimize slavery. Eventually some codes diminished and some intensified, but these codes will have a long lasting impact of history. The number of slaves in America was starting to outnumber the whites and created worry. When the slaves decided enough was enough, rebellions formed. The Africans Americans were fighting for their …show more content…

States like South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina all enforced many codes to ensure that slaves had very limited freedoms. Virginia had a great deal of slave codes. They enforced codes that legally forbid slaves from carrying firearms and allowed their masters to lash them 20 times for the crime (Understandingrace.com). Many other states also enforced the slave code that denied slaves the right to carry firearms. This was a way to prevent rebellions on the plantations. These slave codes gave white owners great power over the slaves. The codes even allowed them to commit murder free of penalty if a slave attempted to run away. If controlling their work life, and where they lived wasn’t enough, plantation owners controlled how they lived their life. Slaves could not even learn to read and write and could be punished if they were caught. States like South Carolina even controlled what slaves wore by forbidding slaves to wear or buy clothes that were finer than “Negro cloth” (Boundless.com). Many of these codes were enforced because white colonists were scared and some even were just because they believed slaves weren’t …show more content…

For example, in 1791, North Carolina made it illegal to willfully killing a slave considered murder. This made it illegal for masters to kill slaves unless the slaves tried to run or resisted their masters (Legal-dictionary.freedictionary.com ). Not all places decreased their intense slave codes. Rebellions had a big influence on the intensity of the laws changing. The Stono Rebellion mentioned earlier had a big influence on the passing of the Negro Act. The Negro Act was passed in 1740 and made it illegal for slaves to move around, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money and even learn to read and write (pbs.org). While some places like North Carolina wanted to give a little right to slaves by making unlawfully treatment of them by their owner illegal, some places that had large rebellions were working to take all rights from the

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