1. the restrictions on slaves and free blacks differed from state to state. Slaves were not able to read or write, they could not leave the owner’s property unless they got permission to do so. If they attempted to run away they would get the death penalty. Slaves were also forbidden to get any kind of pay for their work.
Free blacks did not have the same restrictions as the slaves, some of them owned property, paid taxes and so on. But in some states, they had restrictions on civil and political rights or even right of property.
2. Slave codes were laws that bounded black people to slavery. The laws and the reaction varied from state to state. Some free blacks did not impose the slave codes because of their own restrictions of liberty. Mostly in the Northern cities, free blacks would oppose the slave codes by voting, writing manifestos, buying slaves of family members, or even formed scape routes for runaway slaves.
3. The abolitionists started anti-slavery groups, pressured organizations to oppose the slave codes and even exposed it so they could get even more support to their movement. Some abolitionists would even attack people and families who owned slaves.
4. The slave codes became even worse as a response to the abolitionist movement, the codes started to define slaves as property and prohibited them to write and read, have free movement and even have self-defense acts.
The slave codes were eliminated with the Civil War, but they were replaced by the black codes during the Reconstruction era. This new codes banned some rights to black Americans such as voting, jury duty and other rights. This only changed with the civil rights movement.
