Darianne’s Reviews > The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness > Status Update

“One vagrancy act specifically provided that “all free negroes and mulattoes” over the age of eighteen” must have written proof of a job at the beginning of every year. Those found with no lawful employment were deemed vagrants and convicted. Clearly, the purpose of the black codes in general and the vagrancy laws in particular was to establish another system of forced labor.”