Southern whites feared that freed blacks would seek revenge for past treatment as slaves.
Explanation:
Manumission is the act of an owner freeing his slaves. After slavery was abolished the Southern states started to pass laws called Black Codes. Those laws made manumission harder and also restricted African American’s freedom, right to work, right to vote, right to own property, right to marry and others.
The Black Codes aimed to make African American lives harder so they could not get revenge.
