Reconstruction means to be in the process of rebuilding. For America, reconstruction is the restoration of the Union, the transformation of Southern society, and the progression of rights. The 1860s was the time of Reconstruction. 

Abraham Lincoln introduced the Emancipation Proclamation that changed the lives of black people slightly. In 1865, Lincoln proposed limiting suffrage for African Americans, and his plans for Reconstruction passed onto Andrew Johnson. 

In 1865, under Johnson’s Reconstruction policies, former Confederate states were required to continue abolishing slavery. 

Johnson supported state rights and believed that the government had no say in matters at the state level. The former Confederate States were ruled by white farmers, and they had more say on how their government was rebuilt.

The results were a system varying from different states restricting and requiring African Americans in America to have documentation to stop them from owning their land, business, or working. 

In 1865, South Carolina and Mississippi enacted the first Black Codes. After that, many Southern states followed and enacted their codes.

 The South adopted many of the Black Codes in the form of Jim Crow Laws (from 1865 until 1968), not abolished until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Black Codes granted certain freedoms to African Americans, such as the right to buy and own property, marry, make contracts, or testify in court. 

The codes restricted black people’s activity, aiming to regulate the lives of black people’s restrictive freedom. A few examples are, limiting what kinds of property they can buy or what type of employment they received, essentially enforcing them onto African Americans.

Examining the Black Codes today has had an enormous impact on today’s society, including the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments and the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement.