The state of Louisiana leased out convicts as early as 1844. However, convict leasing began to spread throughout the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). This was just after the end of the American Civil War, which ended slavery. With no more slaves to work for them, Southern farmers and businessmen needed to find new workers. Southern legislatures passed laws called Black Codes to keep blacks from moving freely and to force them to work for whites. As historian Douglas Blackmon explains: