Explain what the Black Codes were and how they kept African Americans in slavery in the South even after the Civil War.

The Black Codes, sometimes called Black Laws, were laws governing the conduct of African Americans. The best known of them were passed in 1865 and 1866 by Southern states, after the American Civil War, in order to restrict African Americans' freedom, and to compel them to work for low wages.

They kept African Americans in slavery through loop holes in the system.