In five years, from 1865 to 1870, three amendments changed the Constitution more than anything since the Bill of Rights. Congress made ratifying them a condition for Southern states to return. Together they are called the Reconstruction Amendments.
Key idea
The Thirteenth (1865) abolished slavery. The Fourteenth (1868) made all persons born or naturalized in the United States citizens and barred states from denying anyone due process or the equal protection of the laws. The Fifteenth (1870) barred denying the vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Why it works
Each one answered a problem the one before left open. Ending slavery (13th) did not say freedpeople were citizens, and the Black Codes showed states could still strip them of rights. So the 14th made them citizens, overturning Dred Scott, and for the first time limited what states could do to people's rights. It did not guarantee the vote, so the 15th protected voting against racial discrimination. Each amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce it "by appropriate legislation."
Worked example: A memory trick that works
How can you keep the three straight?
- Think of the order a person needs: first be free, then be a citizen, then vote.
- 13th: free (1865).
- 14th: citizen, with due process and equal protection (1868).
- 15th: vote, without racial discrimination (1870).
Answer: Free (13), citizen (14), vote (15).
Common mistake
Students mix up the three, or think the Fifteenth gave women the vote. The Fifteenth protected voting only against discrimination by race, color or previous servitude. Women's rights leaders who had worked for abolition, among them Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, split with some allies over it. Women won the vote nationwide with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.