The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 31
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"All the Vile Passions"
would labor inside the penitentiary. Those convicted of all other crimes
would be employed outside the penitentiary on "works of public utility"
directed by a Board of Public Labor.45
A comparison of the Texas black codes with those enacted by other
Southern states in 1865 and 1866 reveals no substantive difference. As
Albrecht stated, a "compilation of a code for freedmen entailed more
borrowing than innovation." Whether dealing with labor, vagrancy, or
apprenticeship, the Texas laws placed similar requirements and restric-
tions upon individuals as did those in Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland,
North Carolina, and Virginia. The early black codes of South Carolina,
Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida may have been more detailed and ap-
plied only to the freedpeople but in a changed political situation the
Texas legislature modified the statutes to make no distinction according
to race and thus seemed more enlightened.46
Although the legislature disguised its true purpose through nondis-
criminatory laws, the restrictions it placed upon the freedpeople paral-
leled those in other Southern states. It is simply untrue that the Texas
laws were less severe than those passed by the other former members of
the Confederacy. Except that they do not apply solely to the freedpeo-
ple, the Texas black codes are interchangeable with those enacted by
any other Southern state. To label the members of the legislature who
saw a necessity for this repressive legislation as "paragons of discretion"
is to distort the truth, even considering the atmosphere in which they
lived. Everyone understood what they attempted to do with the codes.
45 Ibid., V, 1110, 1111 (quotation), 1112-1113. To benefit works "of obvious and manifest
public utility," convicts would work in gangs of not less than twenty individuals. The state treasur-
er, a member of the Board of Public Labor, would negotiate contracts with individuals, compa-
nies, or corporations for the leasing of the inmates and the Board would superintend the
convicts in all their activities. For all convicts leased out, the state would provide their clothes,
subsistence, and medical attention. If they attempted to escape, refused to work, demonstrated
refractory conduct, they would be sent back to the penitentiary at "hard labor." When an individ-
ual completed his term, and if he had been leased, he would receive one-third of the net pro-
ceeds of his work. Moreover, inmates were not allowed to converse with each other. Ibid., 1111
(1st quotation), 1113 (2nd quotation).
By the time that the legislature enacted this law, the number of blacks in the penitentiary had
dramatically increased. This continued to be the case over the next few years. See Donald R.
Walker, Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, x867-9gr2 (College Station: Texas
A&M University Press, 1988); Herman Lee Crow, "A Political History of the Texas Penal System,
1829-1951" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, Austin, 1964), 70-83, 85-86; Barry A. Crouch,
'The Fetters ofJustice: Texas Black Convicts and the Reconstruction Penitentiary" (unpublished
paper). Within a year after emancipation, blacks comprised over 40 percent of the prison popu-
lation.
46 Albrecht, 'The Black Codes of Texas," 3 (quotation); Joe M. Richardson, "Florida Black
Codes," Florida Historical Quarterly, XLVII (Apr., 1969), 365-379; Donald G. Nieman, "The
Freedmen's Bureau and the Mississippi Black Code," Journal of Mississippi History, XL (May,
1978), 91-118; Donald G. Nieman, To Set the Law in Motion: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Legal
Rights of Blacks, 1865-1868 (Millwood, N.Y.: KTO Press, 1979), 72-102.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994, periodical, 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117154/m1/59/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.