The Code Noir The French Black Code and Catholicism regulated
slave and freedmen behavior. When enslaved Afrikans in America
gained a measure of freedom from legalized slavery, plantation
owners, local and state governments, primarily in the South,
were determined to maintain as much control over the newly freed
Afrikans as possible. Their best resort was through political
and legal means, concocting a set of statues called the Black
Codes. “As newly freed slaves would soon learn, freedom was not
as they had anticipated. White Southerners were anxious to
regain power over them and used the law in order to achieve that
objective. In 1865, Southerners created Black Codes, which
served as a way to inhibit the freedom of ex-slaves. Codes
controlled almost all aspects of life and prohibited African
Americans from the freedom that had been won. Codes regulated
civil and legal rights, such as marriage, freedom of speech,
freedom of movement, occupational choice, and the right to hold
and sell property. “Laws were di