Thirteenth Amendment
- Ratified in December, 1865.
- Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Fourteenth Amendment
- Ratified in July, 1868.
- Defined US citizenship and forbade any state from depriving citizens of their rights and privileges.
- It reduced the representation of any state that did not allow its adult male citizens to vote
- It ruled that no state could choose to pay its Confederate debt
- No one who held state or federal office under the Union, and then supported the Confederacy, could hold office without being pardoned by 2-3rd vote of Congress
Fifteenth Amendment
- Ratified in 1870.
- The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
- Women’s rights groups were furious that they were not granted the vote!