14th Amendment

In the year of 1865 many significant events took place. The civil war had just recently ended and the United States was entering a time of reconstruction which brought along many changes for the current and future citizens of the United States. During the year 1865 President Lincoln was assassinated and along with Lincoln the Wade- Davis bill died in his pocket. But what triggered the assassination of President Lincoln is the fact that during this time he wanted to move towards the slaves being treated more equally and eventually being freed into society. This enraged many people because they did not see the African Americans as equal to them. The white society of America thought that they were above and better than the slaves as well as even

The 14th amendment completely rewrites the whole constitution and deems the slaves as full citizens of the United States. This amendment also undoes the ruling of the Dred Scott case which states that no black man has any rights that any white man should recognize. Even with this amendment being passed only two states explicitly allowed black men to vote, Tennessee and Iowa. Eventually because many white men began to find loop holes in letting the black men vote the 15th amendment was passed. The new 15th amendment states a list of reasons that a state cannot allow an individual to vote. This list consist of reasons like race, ethnicity, social class, and things such as previous servitude. The typical male that was allowed to vote and seen as a full citizen was a male that was white, free, and 21 years or older. As all of these amendments were past in the effort to give blacks their full citizenship nothing seemed to

This ballot was called the Australian ballot. The Australian ballot was a ballot that was controlled and printed off by the state and sent out to the poll from there. This ballot made it hard for anyone, the black men and lower class white men, to vote correctly. If a male did not have the correct schooling in how to read or write then they more than likely would not have been able to vote during this time unless they took the understanding test. To take the understanding test you had to completely embarrass yourself and then you were present with a test that was noncommon knowledge questions that had nothing to do with voting. Because of this many uneducated men did not go and vote so therefore it was easier for the educated, higher class white men to steal the other men’s votes and vote for the candidate they wanted to