Since the Thirteen Colonies, suffrage was restricted often to a few qualifications, for example, Plymouth Colony restricted suffrage to only freemen orthodox in the fundamentals of religion. Later, in colonial New York, suffrage did not require religious test but it was restricted to men landholders. In Virginia, white freeman was allowed to vote. Later, slowly all the colonies demanded white males own property to have the right to vote. Only around 1856 that property ownership was left out of the demands to vote, but suffrage was still restricted to white males.
The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.
