A PowerPoint describing the 13-14-15 Amendments, known as Reconstruction Amendments

1. 13th 14th and 15th
Amendments

2. 
 Amendments 13-15 are
called the
Reconstruction
Amendments both
because
1. they were the first
enacted right after the
Civil War and
2. because all addressed
questions related to
the legal and political
status of the African
Americans
(blackpast.org)
Picture of black family
celebrating
Emancipation from
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/
Emancipated_Slaves.htm via
Creative Commons

3. 
From Constitution
 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.
 The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
13th Amendment

4. 
Thirteenth Amendment
 Senate passed Amendment
36-6 on April 8, 1864
 House unable to get 2/3
majority for passage(93/65)
 Resistant Democrats in the
north
 It will be Lincoln who will
muster support to get it
passed in the House (119/56)
 passed by the Senate, by the
House on January 31, 1865
 adopted on December 6, 1865 Drawing of Abraham Lincoln and child

5. 
 All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside.
 No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of
the United States; nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Fourteenth Amendment

6. 
 All persons born in the US are citizens
 Representatives shall be apportioned based on
population
 No representative, senator, president or vice
president could have an insurrection on their resume
 US would not pay Confederate debts
 Enforcement of the 14th Amendment
 Gives blacks political rights and due process of law
 Expanded government at the expense of the states
Fourteenth Amendment (July 1868)

7. 
 Due to it’s concept of
“property”, the 14th
Amendment’s first section, is
one of the most litigated
parts of the
Constitution, forming the
basis for landmark decisions
such as
 Roe v. Wade (1973), regarding
abortion, and
 Bush v. Gore
(2000), regarding the 2000
presidential election.
Photograph of
Pro-choice
Protest from
http://grovesapus
h.wikispaces.com/
Roe+v.+Wade
Free to use
Editorial cartoon showing George W. Bush and
Al GoreTearing Florida from:
http://grovesapush.wikispaces.com/Bush+v.+G
ore free to use

8. 
Fifteenth Amendment
(March, 1870)
 The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any
State on account of
race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
 Forbade states to deny the
right to vote on account of
race, color, or previous
condition of servitude Contemporary print of first black vote in U.S.;
from Library of Congress:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_First_
Vote.jpg

9. 
 The 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments promised great
changes in the lives of
African Americans.
 Unfortunately, however, ther
e were constant attempts to
strip African Americans of
the new freedoms promised
by the Constitution that
would result in the bipolar
“separate but equal” world
 Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
 northerner’s decreasing
interest of controlling the
south
 political problems in the
capitol after the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln
Drawing of Klan members attacking a
“carpetbagger” source in notes
Pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
Source in notes, free to use publically