During a time of oppression that the African Americans had to endure in the 18th century, progress had started to climb its way out of gutters to aid them in securing their rights to vote. One of many ways to see how the 15th Amendment came to be is to get a look at the two previous Amendments before it. There were obstacles African Americans had to overcome and that was to be free from slavery and to be protected as a citizen. In the contents of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment, this paper will discuss when and how the “Negro Suffrage” began and how long the progress had to be. For more than a couple of centuries, African Americans were enslaved by white Americans during the 1600s-1800s. There was no action at that time to prohibit owning slaves until another amendment was made. The Thirteenth Amendment had gained more significance than any other Amendment before it. Abolishing slavery had created controversy which then led to a civil war between the northern and southern states during Lincoln’s presidency. Through 1861-1965, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified eight months after the assassination of President Lincoln. …show more content…
In 1865, the Congress held their 39th convention where they discussed the matters of ensuring ex-slaves their safety in the nation. One of the representatives in the convention by the name John A. Bingham then brought up to attend his suggestion to help make that happen as he states, “To empower Congress to pass all necessary and proper laws to secure all persons in their rights, life, liberty, and property”. This bill was made to be the 14th Amendment. The same Amendment Bingham proposed was also protected under the Bill of
In Mark R. Levin’s book, THE LIBERTY AMENDMENTS, he proposes amendments to the Constitution called “The Liberty Amendments” (Levin 18). His hope for producing this book of proposed amendments is to “spur interest in and, ultimately, support for the state convention process.” (Levin 18). Levin states he undertook this project because he believes the way that the Constitution, as originally structured, “is the necessity and urgency of restoring constitutional republicanism and preserving the civil society from the growing authoritarianism of federal Leviathan” (Levin 1). Levin believes that the Congress operates in a way that was not intended by the Framers of our country, and has become oppressive to its people in its laws (Levin 3). He also
Finally the 15th Amendment was made in 1870 to assure that every person in the US had the right to vote and no one could take that right away as a result of race, color or because citizens used to be slaves.
From five states arose delegates who would soon propose an idea that would impact the United States greatly. The idea was to hold a meeting in Philadelphia called the Constitutional Convention in 1787 meant to discuss the improvements for the Articles of Confederation and would later be called the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution was greatly influenced by Ancient Rome, the Enlightenment, and Colonial Grievances.
The first part of this book looks into African American political activity during the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods. He uses this part of the book to show that blacks, even while in slavery, used their position to gain rights from their slaveholders. These rights included the right to farm their own plots, sale of their produce, and to visit neighboring plantations. This was also the period
Sixteenth Amendment- Authorization of an Income Tax – Progressives thought this would slow down the rising wealth of the richest Americans by using a sliding or progressive scale where the wealthier would pay more into the system. In 1907, Roosevelt supported the tax but it took two years until his Successor, Taft endorsed the constitutional amendment for the tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified by the states in 1913. The origin of the income tax came William J Bryan in 1894 to help redistribute wealth and then from Roosevelt and his dedication to reform of corporations. I agree with an income tax to pay for all of our government systems and departments, but I believe there was a misfire with “redistributing wealth.” The redistribution is seen in welfare systems whereby individuals receive money to live. This is meant to be a temporary assistance, but sadly, most that are in the system are stuck due to lack of assistance in learning how to escape poverty. There are a lot of government funded programs, but there is no general help system to help lift people up and stay up, so there continues a cycle of
...ious slaves the right to citizenship, meaning they were able to do anything that a normal citizen could do, for example hold seats of power. The Fifteenth amendment ensured that they were given the right to vote. However, the reason that their accomplishments were in vain was because they did not get rid of racism. Whatever advancement they made was taken back due to whites still believing in racism. After the Reconstruction era, the South feared an African American with power so they formed hate groups and technicalities to get around amendments. Even though the Fourteenth amendment ensured that slaves were given the right to citizenship, the whole ideal of “separate but equal” came into play. With the Fifteenth amendment, the South was able to justify the racist action of enforcing a literacy clause or a grandfather clause by writing it into their constitution.
The 13th amendment to the Constitution legally ended slavery, however, one could argue that socially and economically it did not. Once African Americans were free, they had nothing and were given very little. Due to the racist attitudes that were rampant in the South, it was nearly impossible to find anything but low paying, unskilled jobs. Because blacks needed work and plantation owners had vacant land they came to a compromise – sharecropping. Sharecropping was an agreement that in exchange for land, a cabin, and tools, at a very high interest rate, the landowner would receive a portion of the harvest. Although this may sound like a good deal, the high interest rates made the debt nearly impossible to repay, thus once again the African Americans were under control of the white race. The contracts also included clauses that were sim...
The nineteenth amendment has changed the way women were treated and looked upon.There are many ways the nineteenth Amendment has changed in a bad was, but most of them have made a positive impact. Some people went along with the 19th amendment but some people didn’t think it was a good idea. Some people don’t know what or how the 19th amendment changed positively for women. But this paper is gonna show you all the ways it has positively changed the way people view and act towards women.
In 1619, slaves from Africa started being shipped to America. In the years that followed, the slave population grew and the southern states became more dependent on the slaves for their plantations. Then in the 1800s slavery began to divide America, and this became a national conflict which lead to the Civil War. Throughout history, groups in the minority have risen up to fight for their freedom. In the United States, at the time of the Civil War African Americans had to fight for their freedom. African Americans used various methods to fight for their freedom during the Civil War such as passing information and supplies to the Union Army, escaping to Union territory, and serving in the Union’s army. These actions affected the African Americans and the United States by helping the African Americans earn citizenship and abolishing slavery in the United States.
African Americans had an active participation during the Reconstruction era and worked hard to achieve rights that they deserved. African Americans acquired different roles, both as individuals and in groups to achieve their goals. One very important role of the African Americans was participation in voting during elections. After the 15Th amendment was passed in 1870 voting was not restricted by race. With this newfound voting power African Americans could control the future of their country. Thanks to this, other rights could now be gained through democratic election. Another role was the African American leaders that represented
The 15th Amendment was written by George Washington Julian. This amendment was passed on February 26, 1869 and was ratified February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment was very significant to many Americans of different races because it changed their lives forever by allowing them to vote. “The present difficulty, in bringing all parts of the United States to a happy unity and love of country grows out of the prejudice to color. The prejudice is a senseless one, but it exists,” said U.S. Grant, 1869.
I want to start with the history of slavery in America. For most African Americans, the journey America began with African ancestors that were kidnapped and forced into slavery. In America, this event was first recorded in 1619. The first documented African slaves that were brought to America were through Jamestown, Virginia. This is historically considered as the Colonial America. In Colonial America, African slaves were held as indentured servants. At this time, the African slaves were released from slavery after a certain number of years of being held in captivity. This period lasted until 1776, when history records the beginning of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage showed the increased of African slaves were bought into America. The increase demand for slaves was because of the increased production of cotton in the south. So, plantation owners demanded more African slaves for purchas...
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are the amendments adopted to the United States Constitution after the Civil War. In succession, these amendments were adopted to the Constitution. Thirteenth Amendment The 13th amendment was adopted speedily in the aftermath of the Civil War, with the simple direct purpose of forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. The 13th Amendment took authority away from the states, so that no state could institute slavery, and it attempted to constitutionally grant the natural right of liberty. Thought that this amendment would suffice, Congressional Republicans pushed the amendment through.
In the latter half of the 18th century, freed slaves possessed the right to vote in all but three states. It was not until the 19th century that states began to pass laws to disenfranchise the black population. In 1850, only 6 out of the 31 states allowed blacks to vote. 1Following the civil war, three reconstruction amendments were passed. The first and second sought to end slavery and guarantee equal rights. The third, the 15th amendment, granted suffrage regardless of color, race, or previous position of servitude.2 The 15th Amendment monumentally changed the structure of American politics as it was no longer the privileged whites who could vote. For some it was as though hell had arrived on earth, but for others, it was freedom singing. However, the song was short lived. While many political cartoons from the period show the freedom that ex-slaves have for voting because of the 15th Amendment, they often neglect to include the fact that many African Americans were coerced into voting a certain way or simply had their rights stripped from them.
It is common knowledge that the American Civil War provided freedom and certain civil rights, including to right to vote, to the African-American population of the nineteenth-century. What is not generally known, and only very rarely acknowledged, is that after freeing the slaves held in the Southeastern portion of the U.S., the federal government abandoned these same African-Americans at the end of the Reconstruction period.2