Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery and guaranteed equal protection and due process nationally

Evidence

In one regard, of course, the war was a real watershed. It ended slavery, though, alas, it did not bring about any golden age for the black men and women who had once been slaves. As soon as the war ended, the Southern states passed harsh laws—​ the so-​called Black Codes—​to grant blacks as few rights as possible, to keep them in their place, and to preserve as much of the old way of life as they could. But the North would have none of this; Northern armies moved in, most of the provisions of the Black Codes were repealed, and three new amendments to the Constitution (the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth) were rammed down the throats of the South. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished, once and for all, slavery and “involun­ tary servitude.” The Fifteenth Amendment gave voting rights to blacks: no state could abridge voting rights “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The Fourteenth Amendment made “all persons” born in the United States (includ­ ing blacks, of course) full citizens—​state and national. Two other provisions of this amendment were destined to have a rich, complicated, and ultimately glorious his­ tory: the clauses that guaranteed to citizens, against the states, the “equal protection” of the laws and that forbade the states from depriving any citizen of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 273

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White Southern backlash nullified Reconstruction amendments through law and terror — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 386; The Reconstruction Amendments aimed to equalize rights and suffrage for Black Americans.; The Thirteenth Amendment’s crime clause legalized post-emancipation re-enslavement via penal servitude (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The Reconstruction Amendments aimed to equalize rights and suffrage for Black Americans. #corroborates (0.95)
• White Southern backlash nullified Reconstruction amendments through law and terror #contradicts (0.90) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 386
• The Thirteenth Amendment’s crime clause legalized post-emancipation re-enslavement via penal servitude #complicates (0.85)
• Reconstruction functioned as America’s second founding via biracial governance and amendments #expands (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1337
• The all-white Supreme Court stripped the Reconstruction Amendments of power #contradicts (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 374
• Civil rights gains were needed because prior reconstructions failed to sustain equality #expands (0.80) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1280