It didn’t take long after the end of the Civil War for the white leaders of Monroe, Louisiana, to enact repressive measures against blacks in their midst. Just two months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, blacks were faced with the following attempts to curtail their freedom, escalate racial tensions, and create legal trouble where there was little cause.

1. Black residents had to register with the mayor’s office. Required information included name, vocation, “the parties to whom hired” and the number of children and their ages.
2. If a person of color did not live in town, but worked there, they too must register, but only their name and vocation were required.
3. Registrants would receive a formal “certificate of registration.”
4. The constable was authorized to arrest any black resident who had not registered by June 25, 1865.
5. The constable was instructed to arrest persons of color who did not have their certificate of registration with them when within town limits.

These measures were all created by one ordinance. Additional obstacles to African Americans’ freedom followed.

1. Any one who hired a black who was unregistered would be fined $10 (the equivalent of $150 today).
2. Blacks who were found to be intoxicated would be fined $5, and if unable to pay, would labor 10 hours for the town.
3. Anyone who sold or gave intoxicating liquors to blacks in excess of “what is commonly known and designated as ‘One Drink'” would be fined $25.

And then, there were these actions, couched in terms of conciliation and compliance to Federal authority, and with a desire to ensure the peace and safety of the townspeople – but in reality a thinly veiled effort to resuscitate two institutions of the slavery era: the pass system, and the slave patrol.

Citing an order from Federal officials at Shreveport, who encouraged black plantation workers to be given a pass from their employers “to prevent their arrest as vagrants,” the local government at Monroe went one better. Desiring to “co-operate with the Military Authorities in securing order and quiet among persons of Color coming into the Town of Monroe,” the mayor and trustees expressly prohibited blacks from coming in to town without a pass. Such a person would automatically be arrested as a vagrant. The Federal Orders were phrased as a request and a preventative measure, with the pass serving to ensure freedom of movement of black plantation workers. In contrast, the Monroe ordinance was punitive, making it a crime to be without a pass, regardless of actual employment status, and regardless of the nature of the black individual’s business about town. What was more, was if a black had come to town to sell goods at the market, “the articles shall be specified in said pass and any articles not mentioned in said pass shall be forfeited to the Town and the proceeds be placed in the Town Treasury.” Thus – a black man laboring on his own account selling a bushel of corn, for instance, risked his produce being confiscated.

Ordinance No. 10 established a Patrol “for the purpose of protecting property” within the town.  Only white men between 18 and 50 could serve on the patrol. They were to aid the Constable in arresting anyone (the law did not specify race or color) who was trespassing on private property.

And the laws continued to be passed in the following weeks. This time, however, they hint at resistance in the African-American community. Ordinances concerned making false entries on the town register and resisting arrest, and are specifically directed at People of Color who were non-compliant or resisting in some manner the regressive measures that had been recently implemented. Finally, in September 1865, most of the town laws which applied to African-Americans had been repealed, upon orders from the U.S. War Department. It was a victory for the black families in the area, to be sure – but it was still a far cry from true freedom.

Sources:

Inflation calculator by Morgan Friedman

E. Russ Williams Jr.,  entry for “Monroe, Louisiana,” in Encyclopedia of Individuals and Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley of Louisiana, 1785-1850, part II, (Monroe, LA: Williams Genealogical and Historical Publications, 1997) pp. 184-186.