What are the Reconstruction Amendments?
Q: What are the Reconstruction Amendments?
A: The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870.
Q: What was the purpose of these amendments?
A: The amendments were important in carrying out the reconstruction of the southern states after the Civil War. They aimed to change the United States from a country that was "half slave and half free" to one in which constitutionally guaranteed "blessings of liberty" would be extended to all people, including former slaves and their descendants.
Q: What did the Thirteenth Amendment do?
A: The Thirteenth Amendment (proposed and ratified in 1865) abolished slavery.
Q: What did the Fourteenth Amendment do?
A: The Fourteenth Amendment (proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868) created a privileges and immunities clause applicable to all citizens; it also made due process and equal protection clauses applicable to all persons.
Q: What did the Fifteenth Amendment do?
A: The Fifteenth Amendment (proposed in 1869 and ratified in 1870) prohibited discrimination against citizens when voting on basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
Q: Who proposed these amendments?
A: These amendments were proposed by northern politicians following the Civil War.
