The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are also known as the Civil War Amendments. This is because they came directly after the Civil War. They were created to help the lives of former slaves.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and made it illegal in the United States. The only exception was if someone was doing the punishment for a crime. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to anyone who was born in the United States. This made it so former slaves now were officially citizens of the United States. The 15th Amendment gave men the right to vote regardless of race or skin color. This meant that former male slaves could now vote.
The Civil War Amendments ultimately hurt the relationship between the North and the South. The North and the South disagreed on a lot, one of the major disagreements was slavery. Even after the Civil War, the South wanted to continue slavery. The South even enacted poll taxes and literacy tests on polls in order to try to prevent black Americans from voting.
They were outraged that former Confederates were able to join Congress. They encouraged cooperation to accomplish the goals of Reconstruction. They decided to hand over control of Reconstruction to President Johnson.
