Essay On The 13th Amendment

Contrary to what the Reconstruction Amendments are perceived to have done for African Americans, it is arguable that the 13th Amendment, while set forth with good intentions, ultimately instilled the idea of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy in southerners, that the 14th Amendment ushered in state-led safety for white supremacist groups, and that the 15th Amendment allowed for leeway in the African Americans’ voting rights through Jim Crow laws: therefore, African Americans were not free during reconstruction. First and foremost, the 13th Amendment, which proclaimed the abolishment of slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865, eventually led to the birth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy (a movement, conducted by confederates, that works to reestablish practices like slavery or white supremacy), because when newly-freed slaves began to leave after the 13th Amendment’s implementation, plantation and/or slave owners began to lose

Additionally, the 14th Amendment, set forth in 1968, in direct opposition to the Confederate state’s Black Codes (a set of laws/rules that restricted African Americans’ rights; some of these rules include, “No negro shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission from his employers”, and that “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances”), granted unabridged citizenship to all African Americans. This Amendment, however, was not specific enough on its demands, allowing the Supreme Court to rule that while the state couldn’t violate the Amendment, the Amendment did not pertain to individuals, which in turn protected extremist groups like the Klu Klux