Racial Discrimination and Occupations in 1865

Did You Know?

In South Carolina, a law prohibited the formerly enslaved from holding any occupation other than farmer or servant unless they paid an annual tax of $10 to $100.* This law hit free blacks already living in Charleston and former slave artisans especially hard.

Before 1800, free African American men could work in skilled trades, but by the latter part of the 1850s, African Americans were also forced out of the skilled professions in which they had been working.

* About $1600 today.

Sources

https://www.rogerogreen.com/2020/07/03/1865-1965-black-codes-red-summer/

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes. Scroll to paragraph ten.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2957.html.      Scroll to paragraph five and ten.