Unit VII: What, Then, Is This American? ca. 1865 - 1900
Question/Problem 1: In what ways did the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments exemplify the goals of Reconstruction?
Read the following portions of these amendments to the United States Constitution. On the next page, fill in the chart and answer the questions.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Con Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
| Amendment 13 | Amendment 14 | Amendment 15 | |
| What rights and privileges were extended by each amendment? | |||
| To whom were rights andprivileges extended by each amendment? | |||
| What rights and privileges were denied by each amendment? | |||
| To whom were rights and privileges extended by each amendment? | |||
| To whom were rights and privileges denied? |
In whom did authors of these three amendments place their trust?
Who did they not trust?