The Black Codes were laws in the South aimed to

• A. Guarantee voting rights for Black men
• B. End sharecropping
• C. Provide universal education
• D. Restrict Freedmen's rights and maintain racial hierarchy

Answer: (D)

After the Civil War, Southern states used laws to shape how freed Black people could live and work, aiming to preserve White supremacy. Black Codes were designed to restrict Freedmen’s rights—limiting their ability to vote, own property, move freely, testify in court, or control their own labor—through penalties and mandatory labor contracts. By curbing freedom and enforcing a labor system that kept Black people in subservient positions, these codes upheld a racial hierarchy even though slavery itself had been abolished. They weren’t about guaranteeing voting rights, ending labor arrangements like sharecropping, or providing universal education; they were about constraining freedoms and enforcing racial control. That combination is why this option best captures the purpose of the Black Codes.