What civil rights, if any, did these laws confer on freed black men and women? why did the laws repeatedly refer to "freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes"? in what ways did these laws limit the freedom of african americans in mississippi? were these laws different from the laws governing slaves? if so, how and why? did former masters exercise any control over their former slaves? to what extent did these laws limit the freedom of white mississippians? what do these laws suggest about white southerners' anxieties and fears regarding the end of slavery? in what ways did the laws envision postemancipation society differing from antebellum slavery?