What was the importance of slave codes? They increased the personal freedoms of enslaved African Americans. They were established as a step forward legal freedoms for African Americans. They increased an owner's control over enslaved African Americans behavior or they allowed for the education of enslaved African Americans
The correct option is: They increased an owner's control over enslaved African Americans' behavior.
Slave codes were laws specifically created to regulate the behavior of enslaved African Americans and to maintain control over them. These codes differed from state to state but generally served to restrict the rights and freedoms of enslaved individuals. They aimed to ensure that enslaved people had no autonomy or ability to resist their owners. Slave codes included provisions such as prohibiting enslaved people from learning to read or write, limiting their movement, restricting their ability to gather or form assemblies, preventing them from owning property, and subjecting them to harsh punishments for even minor offenses. Slave codes reinforced the power dynamic between slaveholders and enslaved people, ultimately perpetuating the institution of slavery.