Fear of rebellion produced harsher Black codes rather than emancipation

Evidence

The vast Vesey conspiracy provoked fear in Charleston and beyond. Slaveholders began to contemplate the end of slavery, and ejecting the Black people seemed like an attractive option. In the words of one writer, “the whole United States [should] join in a Colonization Society.” Another Charleston essayist who endorsed colonization pledged that he was ready to help “free the country of so unwelcome a burden.” Instead, new laws tightening the noose on enslaved Blacks soothed the raw fear. Officials stipulated that enslaved Blacks should only wear “negro cloth,” a cheap, coarse cotton sometimes mixed with wool. “Every distinction should be created between the whites and the negroes,” a jurist said, ” … to make the latter feel the superiority of the former.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 401

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete case for Kendi’s policy-first thesis: the feared revolt triggered exclusionary law (segregationism as policy response), not a change of ideas. — connects to: Oppressors only experience class unity as a feared object when the oppressed revolt — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1042; 1863 draft riots were driven by fear of black labor competition after emancipation — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 439
• SEED: Material for an essay on how the dress-coded ‘negro cloth’ law parallels modern sumptuary-style policing of Black fashion — connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article.
• ADDENDUM: Directly parallels the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article: legally mandating cheap, distinct cloth as class/race differentiation via dress.