Effectiveness of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

1073 Words3 Pages

In this essay I will be writing about the effectiveness of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America and considering whether they achieved the purpose of making life better for African Americans. I’m going to start this essay by talking about the Amendments and what they were designed to achieve. In total there are 27 amendments to the Constitution, all with different ways to make America better. Around 1791 the first amendments were made but the amendments I will be looking at occurred later. The 13th Amendment was made in 1865 and was designed to stop slavery forever; nobody in the US would work against their will. The only exception is for prisoners that have been convicted of a crime. The 14th Amendment was made in 1868 to allow every person who was born in America or who had become an American citizen to have the same rights as any other citizen. Additionally, they were also a citizen of whatever state they lived in. No state in America was allowed to make laws that limit US citizens’ rights and protection, execute people, imprison people or take their property away without a legal process. 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. Was it really the end of slavery? Even though the Amendments were enacted, things still weren’t exactly fair. Black families rented land from wealthy white families on which to live and grow crops. White landowners took advantage of a loophole in the 13th amendment to force the black families to pay 2/3 of their profit or crop as rent. This process was called sharecroppin... ... middle of paper ... ...h and 15th Amendments were made to improve the lives of African Americans and give them equal rights with white citizens. While the intention of the lawmakers was good, the amendments failed because of the strength of the feelings of former slave owners and their ability to influence the people that enforced the law. Also citizens groups such as the KKK created an environment of fear that stopped white people who may have helped black Americans improve their lives. It also prevented many blacks from trying to take advantage of the rights the Amendments had given them. I think that over time the amendments achieved their aims, but it took far longer than intended by the lawmakers at the time. What they did do was give black Americans hope and made it possible for them to legally make changes to their way of life. This in itself was the start of the change.

Show More
Related

  • Reforms Introduced in the American South between 1865 and 1877

    363 Words  | 1 Pages

    Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The 14th Amendment

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Whites never gave total freedom to African Americans. Blacks were forced to endure curfews, passes, and living on rented land, which put them in a similar situation as slaves. In 1866, the KKK started a wave of violence and abuse against negroes in the south, destroying their properties, assaulting and killing them in different ways, just because angry white people do not want the blacks to stand up and join in political or any kind of issues or freedom. The Fourteenth Amendment did surely constitute the biggest development of government force following the approval of the Constitution.

    Read More

  • Civil War Reconstruction Dbq

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Blumer's Four Key Factors To Racial Prejudice

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    We saw the Thirteenth Amendment occur to abolish slavery. We also saw the Civil Rights Acts which gave full citizenship, as well as the prohibiting the denial of due process, etc. Having the civil rights laws enabled African Americans to new freedoms which they did not used to have. There was positive change occurring in the lives of African Americans. However, there was still a fight to suppress African Americans and maintain the racial hierarchy by poll taxes and lengthy and expensive court proceedings. Sadly, this is when Jim Crow laws appeared. During this time African Americans were losing their stride, there was an increase in prison populations and convict labor, and the convicts were

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The 14th Amendment

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout time there have been many amendments to the United States Constitution. Some have had little to no effect on the population. One amendment that this writer will take a look at is the Fourteenth Amendment. The wording of the amendment has been debated here recently but bottom line it abolished slavery. This amendment also made an attempt to equalize everyone that is born here in America or naturalized. The ripple effect of this change to the constitution is still being felt today. It is hard to imagine living in a world where the African American community was not considered equal to the white man. A ground breaking distinction in the language written out in the document was that of it applying on the federal level as well as the state jurisdiction. This is especially important as we see the civil union marriages have conflict

    Read More

  • Civil War Movies: Glory

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Reasoning Behind The 19th Amendment

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 15th amendment was quick to follow the Civil War, making it illegal to deny the right to vote to anyone on account of their race. Blacks did not actually gain the right to vote in all states until The Voting Rights Act in the 1960s. The government gave blacks the right to vote because they saw it could produce an immediate political gain. Nothing could be gained from allowing women to vote, so the government refrained from amending the constitution for women.

    Read More

  • Sundown Towns in America

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    On December 6, 1865, the thirteenth amendment to the United States constitution was ratified (Archives). This amendment effectively abolished slavery with the exception of a punishment for a crime (Archives). This was a great victory for blacks, who had been the preferred target for slaves. For many, however, the passage of the amendment failed to change the attitudes of white Americans. Blacks were clearly not welcome in many cities across the nation, with laws allowing blacks to work within a city’s limits, but requiring them to leave before sundown.

    Read More

  • Essay On The 15th Amendment

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...r right to vote. Social and economic segregation were added to the black American’s loss of political power. In some cases, to keep white supremacy, a group called “Ku Klux Klan” would intimidate black males who had voted or who tried to vote. The Ku Klux Klan along with other groups would often burn their homes, churches, and schools down. Some even resorted to murder. A number of these blacks were killed while attempting to defend their right to vote.

    Read More

  • African American Reconstruction Essay

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... many other things! “The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute quality of the two raves before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinction based upon color, or to enforce social as distinguished from political quality, or a commingling of the two raves upon terns unsatisfactory to either.” This is a quote from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court thought that the two raves should be separate but equal. But even though the two races were separate, it was still not equal because there were much less public restrooms, restaurants, and other things for the blacks in America.

    Read More

  • The Fourteenth Amendment

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... liberties so inflicting upon one and another from person to person seems like a useless loop. The government is supposed to provide for the people, and the Fourteenth Amendment is so universal that, even when written in 1860s, it has served as a cornerstone for some of the most significant cases in United States History.

    Read More

  • Informative Essay: The First Amendment Rights

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    The First Amendment is what we chose because it covers good areas (topics) that are occurring in the world on a daily basis. Many people like the items that The First Amendment covers, and some people don't like them. Either way there are many other amendments that have been ratified by the two-thirds of the House and Senate. There are ten amendments in the constitution, but there are 17 other amendments that aren't in the constitution. Therefore, in total there are 27 amendments.

    Read More

  • Slavery Dbq Essay

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388). Such restrictions included: “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish...No public meetings or congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after sunset…” (Louisiana Black Codes 1865). A solution to this was the 14th Amendment. It meant now all people born in America were citizens and it “Prohibited states from revoking one’s life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This meant all states had to...

    Read More

  • 13th Amendment Essay

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • 15th Amendment

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Effectiveness of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

Open Document