The British were at a disadvantage since they were fighting on land that was not their own, and they didn't know it as well.
It mostly protected the states rights and powers not even the government couldn't take it away as said in the New Tenth Amendment.
One of the major ways in which the Black codes attempted to reimpose bondage on former slaves was through making it much harder for them to vote in elections. It also limited their social and economic mobility through segregation.
Plato wrote the republic in ancient Greece.