“… All freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes who do now and have herebefore lived and cohabited together as husband and wife shall be taken and held in law as legally married, and the issue shall be taken and held as legitimate for all purposes: that is shall not be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free negro, or mulatto: and any person who shall so intermarry, shall be deemed guilty or felony, and on conviction thereof shall be confined in the state penitentiary for life; and those shall be deemed freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes who are of pure negro blood, and those descended from a negro to the third generation, inclusive, though one ancestor in each genration may have been a white person.”

when slaves were free after the civil war, they used to think that they would have their whole rights back. However, through this statement above, government didn’t look like that they were ready to accept those freedmen get into their life and society. The Black Codes still limited some rights of black people, espeacially in marriage. The statement explicated that the marriage rights for black people were discriminated, restricted and unfair. It determined that black people can legally get married or cohabited together, but only with black people. it would be committed to a crime if black people get married or lived with white people, even would get into the jail. it’s kind of unfair because what freedom actually means  is a unlimit for any one who can do anything under the morals and laws. Limited the choice of marriage was an imcomplete and unfair provision to against the true meaning of freedom.