Amendments During The Reconstruction Era

During the Reconstruction Era Congress found a way to adopt its own reconstruction plan by approving two Constitutional Amendments. These Amendments were made to give rights to the newly freed African Americans. The Amendments that were added were the 14th and the 15th Amendment. These new Amendments were created because the federal government wanted to have an interracial democracy.

The 14th Amendment was ratified on the 9th of July, in the year of 1868. This new Amendment was created to protect African Americans against discriminatory laws. Southern states that had previously succeeded from America could rejoin the Union, upon the ratification of the 14th Amendment.This new Amendment gave citizenship to all persons who were either born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves. The 14th Amendment also forbade the states from setting laws that denied any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law."

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution also forbade states …show more content…
Eventually, after the 14th Amendment was ratified, African Americans outnumbered the whites on the state legislature. This caused many problems for African Americans since many white men at the time did not agree with the freedom given to the African Americans. This provoked the creation of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and other terrorist organizations.

Thaddeus Stevens, was a radical Republican, and believed that African American should be entitled to the same rights as white men. He was also the Republican floor leader in the House of Representatives. Due to his, and other radical Republicans’ beliefs in equality for all men, he passed the 14th Amendment when it came to the House of Representatives. Although, he said that the Amendment wasn’t all that he wanted it to be, but passed it because he lived, “among men, and not among