THE NEGRO AT THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR 13
ployer or manager. The prospects, therefore,
seemed good for the northern man who had
some capital. But nearly all ventures by the
northerners were unsuccessful for numerous
reasons. The newcomers were ignorant of planting
 methods; their trust in the Negro was sometimes
 reckless and caused them to lose heavily;
frequently they endeavored to exact more efficient
 work than the Negro could give and thus
gained the dislike of the latter; and after a year
or two politics became such a disturbing factor
that crops were neglected. The failure of the
northern planters made northern capital more
unfriendly, the southern planters gradually went
to ruin, and the resulting depression injured the
Negro.
THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU
During the fall and winter of 1865-1866 nearly
all of the southern legislatures enacted laws later
known as the “Black Codes” which were designed
 to check the roving and thieving propensities
 of the Negroes and to hold them to work
and to a settled abode. This legislation so
strengthened the already existing northern distrust
 of the southern whites that, by means of
the Freedmen’s Bureau and the military forces,
the Negroes were removed entirely from local
legal control, and the southerners were prevented
 from directing their economic progress.
The irritation and disagreement resulting caused
severe disturbance of economic conditions.
The Freedmen’s Bureau, created in 1865 by a
Congress distrustful of the southern master