Wolford v. Lopez · ¶111

One provision of Louisiana’s Black Code was the default rule that Hawaii invokes today. At the time, Louisiana apparently did not restrict by statute where individuals could hunt for game. See Sawers 746, 748; see Fur, Fin, and Feather: Containing the Game Laws of the Principal States of the United States, and Canada 52 (4th ed. 1868). But under the State’s 1865 law, no one was permitted to carry firearms “on the premises or plantations” of another without his permission. 1865 La. Acts No. 10, §1, p. 14. Like the other components of Louisiana’s Black Code, this law was designed to control black labor: It “restricted the ability of blacks to feed themselves on open land,” thus “pushing [them] into the agricultural labor market.” Sawers 748; cf. Foner 203 (explaining that “by limiting hunting,” Southern States “made it more difficult for blacks to obtain food or income without working on…

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