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The Civil War was ending.
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Millions of enslaved people stood on the edge of freedom.
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But freedom had never been clearly defined.
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A state might no longer be able to call a person property, but could it still refuse to call that person a citizen?
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Could it deny them the protection of its laws?
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And could it silence their vote?
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The country had survived four years of war.
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Now, it faced a question that armies could not answer.
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What would freedom mean after slavery?
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At Constitution Unlocked, I believe kids deserve to know their rights and understand the document that helps define them.
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I created this podcast to provide that foundation by explaining the Constitution's words, history, debates, and impact in a clear and engaging way.
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Those events were originally written mainly as limits on the federal government.
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But what would happen when a state violated a person's rights?
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What would the Constitution do about the millions of people it had allowed to be enslaved?
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Today, we are unlocking the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, how they transformed the Constitution after the Civil War, what each one promised, and why writing rights into the Constitution did not automatically make those rights a reality.
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To understand why any of these amendments mattered, we need to go back to the beginning.
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In 1787, delegates gathered in Philadelphia to write the United States Constitution.
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They created a new system of government based on representative democracy, divided powers, and the idea that government should operate under a written constitution.
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But there was a contradiction at the heart of this new nation.
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Slavery already existed throughout much of the country, and the Constitution accommodated and protected the institution in several ways.
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First, it counted three-fifths of the enslaved population when determining representation and direct taxation.
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It also included a provision requiring the return of people who escaped slavery into another state.
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The document did not use the words slave or slavery in those provisions, but the institution was built into the constitutional system.
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Think about that for a moment.
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The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal.
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Yet, millions of people were treated as property, denied basic freedoms, and excluded from political participation.
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That constitution would shape American history for generations.
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As the country expanded westward, the conflict over slavery became increasingly bitter.
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Would new states permit slavery?
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Could Congress restrict its expansion?
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Could the country continue to grow while avoiding a direct confrontation over the institution?
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Political compromises repeatedly postponed the crisis, but they never resolved it.
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Then, in 1857, the Supreme Court made a decision that pushed the country even deeper into conflict.
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That case was Dred Scott v.
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Stanford.
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Dred Scott was an enslaved man who sued for his freedom after living in places where slavery was prohibited.
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But the Supreme Court ruled against him.
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Even worse, the court declared that black Americans descended from enslaved people could not be citizens of the United States under the Constitution.
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In effect, the court said that Scott could not claim rights he was seeking through federal citizenship.
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The decision intensified the national debate over slavery and citizenship.
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Four years later, the Civil War began.
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On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
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It declared enslaved people in designated areas rebelling against the United States to be free, essentially saying that slaves in Confederate states were free.
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The Proclamation changed the course of the war.
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It made emancipation a central Union war aim and opened the door for black men to serve officially in the United States military.
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But there was a major limitation.
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The proclamation did not abolish slavery everywhere.
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It generally applied to areas in rebellion, not to loyal border states that still permitted slavery.
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And its authority was tied to Lincoln's wartime powers.
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So what would happen then when the war ended?
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Could slavery return in places where it had not been abolished by the proclamation?
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Lincoln and other anti-slavery leaders wanted a permanent constitutional answer, so that meant changing the Constitution itself.
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The Senate approved an amendment abolishing slavery in April 1864, but the House of Representatives initially rejected it.
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Supporters continued fighting for the votes they needed.
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Finally, on January 31, 1865, the House approved the proposed amendments by the required two-thirds majority.
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The amendment then went to the states for ratification.
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And by December 1865, enough states had approved it.
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The 13th Amendment had officially become part of the Constitution.
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And its opening words were direct.
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Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
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For the first time, the Constitution explicitly prohibited slavery throughout the United States.
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Before the Thirteenth Amendment, the Constitution had accommodated a system in which human beings could be owned as property.
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Now, the Constitution prohibited that system.
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This was not simply a change in government policy.
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It was a fundamental change in the nation's highest law, but the amendment contains another important detail.
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It prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, with an exception for punishment for a crime after a person has been duly convicted.
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In plain English, the amendment allows compulsory labor imposed as part of a criminal sentence following a lawful conviction.
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That accepted would become deeply controversial.
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In the years after the Civil War, Southern states used criminal laws, discriminatory enforcement, and prison labor systems to exploit and control many black Americans.
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Slavery might have been abolished, but systems of coercion and exploitation continued.
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The Thirteenth Amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce its provisions through appropriate legislation.
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That matters because constitutional rights need practical protection.
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Congress was given authority to pass laws designated to prevent slavery and involuntary servitude from continuing.
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Still, one enormous question remained.
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What did freedom include?
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If no one could legally own you, did that mean the government had to protect you from violence?
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Could you make a contract?
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Could you own property?
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Could you go to court?
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And were you a citizen?
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The 13th Amendment answered the first question, but it did not settle all the others.
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And that brings us to the next stage of reconstruction.
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For formally enslaved people, emancipation opened the door to possibilities that had previously been denied.
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Families searched for relatives who had been separated and sold away.
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People established churches, built schools, negotiated wages, formalized marriages, purchased land where they could, and formed political organizations.
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For the first time, many could make decisions about their own lives that an enslaver had once controlled.
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Where would they live?
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Where would they work?
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Would their children attend school?
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And how would they worse it?
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These were ordinary decisions for many Americans.
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For people emerging from slavery, they represented a profound transformation.
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But emancipation did not mean that everyone accepted black freedom.
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Across the South, several state governments introduced laws known as black codes.
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The details varied, but many of these laws attempted to restrict the choices and independence of newly freed black people.
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Some used broad vagrancy laws to punish people who could not prove that they were employed.
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Others restricted occupations, limited movement, or pressured black workers into labor arrangements that offered little genuine freedom.
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Consider the contradiction.
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The Constitution now prohibited slavery, but some state governments were trying to recreate aspects of the old system through new laws.
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Congress responded.
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In 1866, it passed the Civil Rights Act, declaring that people born in the United States with limited exceptions were citizens and possessed specified civil rights regardless of race.
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President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill.
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But Congress overrode his veto and the law took effect.
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Still, supporters of Reconstruction understood that a federal law could be changed or repealed.
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They wanted more durable protection.
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They wanted citizenship and equal protection written into the Constitution itself.
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That meant another amendment.
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This time, the goal wasn't simply to end slavery.
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It was to define what citizenship meant and establish limits on what state governments could do to people under their authority.
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This was the mission of the 14th Amendment.
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Proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment is one of the most consequential amendments in American history.
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It has five sections, but its first section is especially important because it contains four major constitutional guarantees.
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Let's take them one at a time.
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This is known as the Citizenship Clause.
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Its central message is that citizenship is a constitutional matter.
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States cannot simply decide that an entire group of people born in the United States do not belong to the nation.
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The clause established birthright citizenship for people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction with limited exceptions.
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Most importantly, in the context of Reconstruction, it rejected the central citizenship ruling in Dread Scott.
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Black Americans could no longer be excluded from national citizenship on the basis of the rule announced in that case.
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Here's a way to think about it.
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Imagine a country where every state gets to decide for itself who counts as a citizen of the United States.
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One state might recognize you, another refuses to recognize you.
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Your basic standing as an American depends on where you live.
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The citizenship clause establishes a national constitutional rule instead.
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Your citizenship cannot be taken away because a state government decides that people of your race do not belong.
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That was a revolutionary change.
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But citizenship alone does not guarantee fair treatment.
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A government can recognize you as a citizen and still discriminate against you.
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So the 14th Amendment goes further.
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The next provision says no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.
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In simpler terms, states may not violate the privileges that belong to citizens of the United States.
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That role developed largely through the next provision.
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The 14th Amendment says that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
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Let's put that into everyday language.
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The government can't take away your life, freedom, or property without following constitutionally adequate legal procedures.
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Those words may sound familiar because the Fifth Amendment also contains a due process clause.
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But there is a crucial difference.
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The Fifth Amendment restricts the federal government, but the Fourteenth Amendment restricted the state governments.
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And that difference changed American constitutional law.
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Before the Civil War, the Bill of Rights was generally understood to limit the federal government rather than state and local governments.
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So for example, the First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law restricting freedom of speech.
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What about a state government that violates those freedoms?
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For much of early American history, the Bill of Rights did not directly provide the same protections against state governments.
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The Fourteenth Amendment helped to change that.
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Over time, the Supreme Court interpreted its due process clause to apply most protections in the Bill of Rights to the states.
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This process is called incorporation.
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Think of incorporation as a constitutional bridge.
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On one side, you have the Bill of Rights, originally understood mainly as a limit on the federal government.
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On the other side, you have state and local governments.
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Through a series of Supreme Court decisions, the Fourteenth Amendment became the bridge connecting many of those protections to state and local government actions.
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That meant protections involving freedom of speech, religious exercise, criminal trials, and unreasonable searches now generally apply to state and local governments, as well as the federal government.
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Not every provision of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated in exactly the same way.
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But the broader transformation is enormous.
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The 14th Amendment helped make individual rights enforceable against government at every level, and it contains one more major guarantee.
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The final guarantee in section one says that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
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Notice the wording.
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It says any person, not just citizens.
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The basic principle is that states must provide equal protection under the law.
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They can't arbitrarily deny legal protection to certain groups or impose unjustifiable unequal treatment.
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Imagine a town that promises emergency protection to every citizen.
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But when a fire breaks out in a black family's home, officials deliberately refuse to send firefighters because of the family's race.
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The promise of protection exists on paper, but the protection itself is being denied.
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That is the kind of distinction that helps explain equal protection.
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A legal system cannot simply announce that everyone is protected while deliberately withholding that protection from certain people.
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The clause emerged from the struggle against slavery in the Black Codes, with the rights of formerly enslaved people at the center of Reconstruction.
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But its language extended far beyond that immediate historical moment.
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Nearly 90 years later, the Supreme Court relied on the Equal Protection Clause in Broad v.
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Board of Education.
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In 1954, the court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Constitution.
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The 14th Amendment, written in the aftermath of the Civil War, had become a central constitutional tool for challenging segregation.
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That is one of the most remarkable things about constitutional amendments.
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Their words can continue to shape legal disputes long after the people who wrote them are gone.
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Section one receives the most attention, but the 14th Amendment contains four additional sections.
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Section two addressed representation in Congress after slavery ended.
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It also provided for a reduction in representation when certain male citizens were denied the right to vote subject to the section's terms.
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That penalty was never effectively enforced as intended.
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Section three addressed former government officials who had sworn to support the Constitution and then participated in insurrection or rebellion.
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It restricted their ability to hold certain offices unless the required congressional supermajorities removed the restriction.
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Section 4 protected the public debt of the United States while rejecting Confederate debts and claims for compensation for the loss of enslaved people.
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And Section 5 gave Congress the power to enforce the amendment through appropriate legislation.
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Taken together, these provisions addressed citizenship, civil rights, political representation, the consequences of rebellion, and the enforcement of Reconstruction.
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But one major question remained unresolved.
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Even if black Americans were citizens, could a state prevent them from voting because of their race?
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The 14th Amendment had helped define citizenship and equal protection.
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The next amendment would address voting discrimination directly.
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Voting is more than a way to choose a president.
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It's a way for citizens to influence laws, select representatives, and hold government officials accountable.
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Without political power, people may have rights in theory, but struggle to defend those rights in practice.
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During Reconstruction, black men voted in large numbers in many southern states.
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Black Americans served in local and state governments, helped write new state constitutions, and entered Congress.
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In 1870, Haram Revels of Mississippi became the first black American to serve in the United States Senate.
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These developments represented a dramatic transformation in American democracy, but racial discrimination in voting remained a serious threat.
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So the Constitution again needed another amendment.
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The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870.
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It declared that the right of citizens to vote cannot be denied or abridged by the federal government or states on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
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In plain language, the government cannot deny a person the vote because that person is black, because of their skin color, or because they were previously enslaved.
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Like the 13th and 14th Amendments, the 15th also gives Congress the power to enforce its provisions through legislation.
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But here's an important distinction.
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The 15th Amendment did not establish an unrestricted right to vote for every adult citizen.
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It prohibited specific forms of discrimination, and it did not prohibit voting discrimination based on sex.
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Women remained excluded from voting in most elections, including black women who had endured both racial and gender discrimination.
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It would take another 50 years before the 19th Amendment prohibited denying the vote on account of sex.
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Even so, the 15th Amendment represented a major constitutional commitment.
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Race and previous enslavement could not be used as grounds for denying citizens the right to vote.
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For a time, that commitment helped transform political life across the South.
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But the amendment's opponents soon developed ways to undermine it.
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And that is where the story takes a darker turn.
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The Reconstruction Amendments had changed the Constitution.
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But constitutional language did not automatically change the attitudes, institutions, or behavior of everyone in the country.
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White supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, used threats, beatings, and murder to intimidate black voters, officeholders, and their allies.
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Congress responded with enforcement acts that gave the federal government additional tools to prosecute certain efforts to interfere with voting and other constitutional rights.
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Federal intervention temporarily weakened some of the violence.
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But opposition to Reconstruction continued.
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And as federal commitment to protecting Reconstruction weakened, Southern states found increasingly systematic ways to restrict black political participation.
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They imposed poll taxes, requiring citizens to pay a fee before voting.
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They introduced literacy tests that could be administered unfairly.
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They adopted grandfather clauses that exempted some people from voting restrictions if their ancestors had been eligible to vote before the Civil War, a time when enslaved black Americans were generally denied the vote.
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Other barriers included complicated registration procedures, intimidation, and outright violence.
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Many of these restrictions avoided explicitly mentioning race, but their design or administration often targeted black voters.
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The result was devastating.
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Cross must of the South, black citizens were pushed out of political life.
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White supremacist governments established and expanded Jim Crow, a system of racial segregation and discrimination.
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The Reconstruction Amendments remained in the Constitution, but their protections were often denied in practice.
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This reveals a fundamental distinction in constitutional democracy.
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A right written into the Constitution is not the same thing as a right that everyone can safely exercise.
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A person may possess the legal right to vote, but could be threatened at the voting place.
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A student may be entitled to equal protection, but Be excluded from school because of their race.
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A person may have constitutional freedom of speech, but face unlawful punishment for exercising it.
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The existence of a right matters enormously, but so does the willingness and ability of government institutions to enforce it.
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For generations, black Americans continued challenging racial discrimination through lawsuits, journalism, education, political organizing, protest, and community institutions.
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And they continued using the Constitution itself as a source of authority.
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The same amendments that had been adopted during Reconstruction would become central to the modern civil rights movement.
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In 1954, Brown v.
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Board of Education established that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause.
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In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, addressing discrimination in areas including public accommodations and employment.
00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:04.720
In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, creating stronger federal protections against discriminatory voting practices.
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:13.279
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's incorporation decisions had applied most protections to the Bill of Rights to state and local governments through the 14th Amendment.
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:21.519
These developments did not end every form of discrimination, but they demonstrated the continuing power of the Reconstruction Amendments.
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:26.400
The amendments had not disappeared during the decades when their promises were neglected.
00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:35.279
Their words were made available to citizens, lawyers, judges, legislators, and activists who demanded that the country live up to its constitution.
00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:37.200
The words remained.
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:41.519
What changed over time was the country's willingness to enforce them.
00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.480
Let's step back and put the amendments together.
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:48.559
The Thirteenth Amendment says, can one person legally own another person?
00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:50.000
Its answer is no.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:59.200
Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited, except for involuntary servitude imposed as punishment for a crime following a lawful conviction.
00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:04.799
The Fourteenth Amendment asks, who is a citizen and what protections must state governments provide?
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:11.440
It establishes birthright citizenship, protects due process, and requires equal protection of the laws.
00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:19.279
Over time, it also became the constitutional foundation for applying most of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments.
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:26.640
The 15th Amendment asks, can the government deny a person the right to vote because of race, color, or previous enslavement?
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:28.160
Its answer is no.
00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:31.920
Think of these amendments as addressing three connected dimensions of freedom.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:34.960
Freedom, citizenship, and political participation.
00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:38.160
Freedom means you cannot be legally owned by another person.
00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:44.559
Citizenship establishes your constitutional standing in the nation and helps secure your rights against government abuse.
00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:49.359
Political participation gives you a voice in choosing the people who make and enforce the laws.
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:55.839
During Reconstruction, the United States made some of the most important constitutional changes in its history.
00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:05.359
It abolished slavery, established a national rule for citizenship, and promised due process and equal protection, and prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:10.559
Yet the country failed for generations to protect many of the people those amendments were written to defend.
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:13.200
That failure does not make the amendments meaningless.
00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:17.519
It shows why constitutional democracy requires more than words on a page.
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:19.519
Rights must be understood.
00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:22.720
They must be defended, and they must be enforced.
00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:29.279
When the Civil War ended, the United States had to confront a question that victory on the battlefield couldn't answer.
00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:32.160
What would freedom mean after slavery?
00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:34.799
A law can be written and still be violated.
00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:37.359
A right can be recognized and still be denied.
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:42.880
A promise can be placed in the Constitution and still require generations of people to fight for its fulfillment.
00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:47.920
The Reconstruction Amendments did not amend America's struggle over freedom and equality.
00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:57.519
They gave that struggle new constitutional tools, and those tools continue to shape debates over civil rights, voting, government power, and equal treatment today.
00:25:57.759 --> 00:25:59.839
Here's today's fun fact.
00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:07.039
On March 31, 1870, a local election took place in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:10.799
One of the voters was a black man named Thomas Mundy Peterson.
00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:15.359
Just one day earlier, the 15th Amendment had been officially certified.
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:21.359
Peterson is widely recognized as the first black American known to cast a ballot under the amendment's protection.
00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:22.880
Think about what this meant.
00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:28.559
For generations, black Americans had been denied political rights through slavery and racial discrimination.
00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:36.480
Now, a constitutional amendment prohibited the government from denying citizens the vote because of race, color, or previous enslavement.
00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:38.799
And Peterson exercised that right.
00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:42.880
His ballot was cast in a local election, not a presidential one.
00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:46.400
But its significance reached far beyond the city.
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:53.039
Fourteen years later, the people of Perth Amboy presented him with a medal honoring his historic vote.
00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:58.480
It was a reminder that constitutional change isn't only about what happens in Washington, D.C.
00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:07.519
Sometimes it becomes real in a local community, at a polling place, when one person exercises a right that the Constitution has promised to protect.
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:15.599
Thomas Mundy Peterson's vote reminds us that behind every constitutional amendment are real people whose lives can be changed by its words.
00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:19.519
And that brings us back to the central lesson of today's episode.
00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:23.039
Writing freedom into the Constitution can change the law.
00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:27.279
Making that freedom real requires people to protect it.
00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:31.359
Thanks for listening to Constitution Unlocked, and we'll see you next time.
00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:38.720
If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please make sure to follow us on our Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube account.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:42.720
Or follow our Constitution Unlocked profiles on Instagram and TikTok.
00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:02.240
The Civil War was ending.
00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:06.400
Millions of enslaved people stood on the edge of freedom.
00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:10.160
But freedom had never been clearly defined.
00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:17.519
A state might no longer be able to call a person property, but could it still refuse to call that person a citizen?
00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.320
Could it deny them the protection of its laws?
00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:22.239
And could it silence their vote?
00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:25.440
The country had survived four years of war.
00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.000
Now, it faced a question that armies could not answer.
00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:32.640
What would freedom mean after slavery?
00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:38.960
At Constitution Unlocked, I believe kids deserve to know their rights and understand the document that helps define them.
00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:48.719
I created this podcast to provide that foundation by explaining the Constitution's words, history, debates, and impact in a clear and engaging way.
00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:03.119
Those events were originally written mainly as limits on the federal government.
00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:07.040
But what would happen when a state violated a person's rights?
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:12.400
What would the Constitution do about the millions of people it had allowed to be enslaved?
00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:29.439
Today, we are unlocking the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, how they transformed the Constitution after the Civil War, what each one promised, and why writing rights into the Constitution did not automatically make those rights a reality.
00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:34.400
To understand why any of these amendments mattered, we need to go back to the beginning.
00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:40.079
In 1787, delegates gathered in Philadelphia to write the United States Constitution.
00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:50.000
They created a new system of government based on representative democracy, divided powers, and the idea that government should operate under a written constitution.
00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:54.079
But there was a contradiction at the heart of this new nation.
00:01:54.319 --> 00:02:02.480
Slavery already existed throughout much of the country, and the Constitution accommodated and protected the institution in several ways.
00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:09.199
First, it counted three-fifths of the enslaved population when determining representation and direct taxation.
00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:14.719
It also included a provision requiring the return of people who escaped slavery into another state.
00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:23.120
The document did not use the words slave or slavery in those provisions, but the institution was built into the constitutional system.
00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:24.560
Think about that for a moment.
00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:29.199
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal.
00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:38.080
Yet, millions of people were treated as property, denied basic freedoms, and excluded from political participation.
00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:41.919
That constitution would shape American history for generations.
00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:47.840
As the country expanded westward, the conflict over slavery became increasingly bitter.
00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.479
Would new states permit slavery?
00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:53.039
Could Congress restrict its expansion?
00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:59.039
Could the country continue to grow while avoiding a direct confrontation over the institution?
00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:05.919
Political compromises repeatedly postponed the crisis, but they never resolved it.
00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:14.159
Then, in 1857, the Supreme Court made a decision that pushed the country even deeper into conflict.
00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.319
That case was Dred Scott v.
00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:17.120
Stanford.
00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:23.680
Dred Scott was an enslaved man who sued for his freedom after living in places where slavery was prohibited.
00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:26.800
But the Supreme Court ruled against him.
00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:35.759
Even worse, the court declared that black Americans descended from enslaved people could not be citizens of the United States under the Constitution.
00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.439
In effect, the court said that Scott could not claim rights he was seeking through federal citizenship.
00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:46.159
The decision intensified the national debate over slavery and citizenship.
00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:48.479
Four years later, the Civil War began.
00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:55.680
On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:05.280
It declared enslaved people in designated areas rebelling against the United States to be free, essentially saying that slaves in Confederate states were free.
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:08.560
The Proclamation changed the course of the war.
00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:17.279
It made emancipation a central Union war aim and opened the door for black men to serve officially in the United States military.
00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:19.279
But there was a major limitation.
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:22.160
The proclamation did not abolish slavery everywhere.
00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:28.160
It generally applied to areas in rebellion, not to loyal border states that still permitted slavery.
00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:31.600
And its authority was tied to Lincoln's wartime powers.
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.240
So what would happen then when the war ended?
00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:38.399
Could slavery return in places where it had not been abolished by the proclamation?
00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:46.319
Lincoln and other anti-slavery leaders wanted a permanent constitutional answer, so that meant changing the Constitution itself.
00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:54.639
The Senate approved an amendment abolishing slavery in April 1864, but the House of Representatives initially rejected it.
00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:58.000
Supporters continued fighting for the votes they needed.
00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:07.199
Finally, on January 31, 1865, the House approved the proposed amendments by the required two-thirds majority.
00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:10.720
The amendment then went to the states for ratification.
00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:15.519
And by December 1865, enough states had approved it.
00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:20.000
The 13th Amendment had officially become part of the Constitution.
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.399
And its opening words were direct.
00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:31.120
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:38.000
For the first time, the Constitution explicitly prohibited slavery throughout the United States.
00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:46.560
Before the Thirteenth Amendment, the Constitution had accommodated a system in which human beings could be owned as property.
00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:49.920
Now, the Constitution prohibited that system.
00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:53.120
This was not simply a change in government policy.
00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:59.759
It was a fundamental change in the nation's highest law, but the amendment contains another important detail.
00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:09.040
It prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, with an exception for punishment for a crime after a person has been duly convicted.
00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:17.199
In plain English, the amendment allows compulsory labor imposed as part of a criminal sentence following a lawful conviction.
00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:21.040
That accepted would become deeply controversial.
00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:33.519
In the years after the Civil War, Southern states used criminal laws, discriminatory enforcement, and prison labor systems to exploit and control many black Americans.
00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:40.879
Slavery might have been abolished, but systems of coercion and exploitation continued.
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:47.920
The Thirteenth Amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce its provisions through appropriate legislation.
00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:52.720
That matters because constitutional rights need practical protection.
00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:59.199
Congress was given authority to pass laws designated to prevent slavery and involuntary servitude from continuing.
00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.959
Still, one enormous question remained.
00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:04.959
What did freedom include?
00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:10.720
If no one could legally own you, did that mean the government had to protect you from violence?
00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:12.560
Could you make a contract?
00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.079
Could you own property?
00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:15.519
Could you go to court?
00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:17.040
And were you a citizen?
00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:22.000
The 13th Amendment answered the first question, but it did not settle all the others.
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:25.360
And that brings us to the next stage of reconstruction.
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For formally enslaved people, emancipation opened the door to possibilities that had previously been denied.
00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.720
Families searched for relatives who had been separated and sold away.
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People established churches, built schools, negotiated wages, formalized marriages, purchased land where they could, and formed political organizations.
00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:53.920
For the first time, many could make decisions about their own lives that an enslaver had once controlled.
00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:55.279
Where would they live?
00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:56.560
Where would they work?
00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.720
Would their children attend school?
00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:00.480
And how would they worse it?
00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:03.759
These were ordinary decisions for many Americans.
00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:09.360
For people emerging from slavery, they represented a profound transformation.
00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:13.680
But emancipation did not mean that everyone accepted black freedom.
00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:19.279
Across the South, several state governments introduced laws known as black codes.
00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:27.120
The details varied, but many of these laws attempted to restrict the choices and independence of newly freed black people.
00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:32.559
Some used broad vagrancy laws to punish people who could not prove that they were employed.
00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:41.200
Others restricted occupations, limited movement, or pressured black workers into labor arrangements that offered little genuine freedom.
00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:42.799
Consider the contradiction.
00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:52.399
The Constitution now prohibited slavery, but some state governments were trying to recreate aspects of the old system through new laws.
00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:54.240
Congress responded.
00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:06.320
In 1866, it passed the Civil Rights Act, declaring that people born in the United States with limited exceptions were citizens and possessed specified civil rights regardless of race.
00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:09.840
President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill.
00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:13.919
But Congress overrode his veto and the law took effect.
00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:20.320
Still, supporters of Reconstruction understood that a federal law could be changed or repealed.
00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:23.600
They wanted more durable protection.
00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.600
They wanted citizenship and equal protection written into the Constitution itself.
00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:32.000
That meant another amendment.
00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:35.440
This time, the goal wasn't simply to end slavery.
00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:43.039
It was to define what citizenship meant and establish limits on what state governments could do to people under their authority.
00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:45.600
This was the mission of the 14th Amendment.
00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:55.200
Proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment is one of the most consequential amendments in American history.
00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:03.679
It has five sections, but its first section is especially important because it contains four major constitutional guarantees.
00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:05.679
Let's take them one at a time.
00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:22.240
This is known as the Citizenship Clause.
00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:27.200
Its central message is that citizenship is a constitutional matter.
00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:34.480
States cannot simply decide that an entire group of people born in the United States do not belong to the nation.
00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:42.799
The clause established birthright citizenship for people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction with limited exceptions.
00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:49.919
Most importantly, in the context of Reconstruction, it rejected the central citizenship ruling in Dread Scott.
00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:57.679
Black Americans could no longer be excluded from national citizenship on the basis of the rule announced in that case.
00:10:57.919 --> 00:10:59.759
Here's a way to think about it.
00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:06.879
Imagine a country where every state gets to decide for itself who counts as a citizen of the United States.
00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:11.039
One state might recognize you, another refuses to recognize you.
00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:15.200
Your basic standing as an American depends on where you live.
00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:20.639
The citizenship clause establishes a national constitutional rule instead.
00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:27.519
Your citizenship cannot be taken away because a state government decides that people of your race do not belong.
00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:30.320
That was a revolutionary change.
00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:35.120
But citizenship alone does not guarantee fair treatment.
00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:40.080
A government can recognize you as a citizen and still discriminate against you.
00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:42.480
So the 14th Amendment goes further.
00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:52.000
The next provision says no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.
00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:59.279
In simpler terms, states may not violate the privileges that belong to citizens of the United States.
00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:03.120
That role developed largely through the next provision.
00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:13.360
The 14th Amendment says that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:15.840
Let's put that into everyday language.
00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:25.279
The government can't take away your life, freedom, or property without following constitutionally adequate legal procedures.
00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:32.000
Those words may sound familiar because the Fifth Amendment also contains a due process clause.
00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.720
But there is a crucial difference.
00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:41.919
The Fifth Amendment restricts the federal government, but the Fourteenth Amendment restricted the state governments.
00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:45.759
And that difference changed American constitutional law.
00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:53.840
Before the Civil War, the Bill of Rights was generally understood to limit the federal government rather than state and local governments.
00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:59.759
So for example, the First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law restricting freedom of speech.
00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:02.559
What about a state government that violates those freedoms?
00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:09.840
For much of early American history, the Bill of Rights did not directly provide the same protections against state governments.
00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.720
The Fourteenth Amendment helped to change that.
00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:20.799
Over time, the Supreme Court interpreted its due process clause to apply most protections in the Bill of Rights to the states.
00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:23.840
This process is called incorporation.
00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:27.600
Think of incorporation as a constitutional bridge.
00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:34.399
On one side, you have the Bill of Rights, originally understood mainly as a limit on the federal government.
00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:38.320
On the other side, you have state and local governments.
00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:47.919
Through a series of Supreme Court decisions, the Fourteenth Amendment became the bridge connecting many of those protections to state and local government actions.
00:13:48.159 --> 00:14:01.279
That meant protections involving freedom of speech, religious exercise, criminal trials, and unreasonable searches now generally apply to state and local governments, as well as the federal government.
00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:06.159
Not every provision of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated in exactly the same way.
00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:09.440
But the broader transformation is enormous.
00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:19.840
The 14th Amendment helped make individual rights enforceable against government at every level, and it contains one more major guarantee.
00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:31.919
The final guarantee in section one says that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:33.440
Notice the wording.
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:37.759
It says any person, not just citizens.
00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:42.879
The basic principle is that states must provide equal protection under the law.
00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:50.000
They can't arbitrarily deny legal protection to certain groups or impose unjustifiable unequal treatment.
00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:54.399
Imagine a town that promises emergency protection to every citizen.
00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:03.679
But when a fire breaks out in a black family's home, officials deliberately refuse to send firefighters because of the family's race.
00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:09.679
The promise of protection exists on paper, but the protection itself is being denied.
00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:14.240
That is the kind of distinction that helps explain equal protection.
00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:21.519
A legal system cannot simply announce that everyone is protected while deliberately withholding that protection from certain people.
00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:29.600
The clause emerged from the struggle against slavery in the Black Codes, with the rights of formerly enslaved people at the center of Reconstruction.
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.919
But its language extended far beyond that immediate historical moment.
00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:40.320
Nearly 90 years later, the Supreme Court relied on the Equal Protection Clause in Broad v.
00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:41.679
Board of Education.
00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:48.320
In 1954, the court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Constitution.
00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:56.559
The 14th Amendment, written in the aftermath of the Civil War, had become a central constitutional tool for challenging segregation.
00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:02.159
That is one of the most remarkable things about constitutional amendments.
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:08.639
Their words can continue to shape legal disputes long after the people who wrote them are gone.
00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:15.279
Section one receives the most attention, but the 14th Amendment contains four additional sections.
00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:19.919
Section two addressed representation in Congress after slavery ended.
00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:29.200
It also provided for a reduction in representation when certain male citizens were denied the right to vote subject to the section's terms.
00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.559
That penalty was never effectively enforced as intended.
00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:40.639
Section three addressed former government officials who had sworn to support the Constitution and then participated in insurrection or rebellion.
00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:47.919
It restricted their ability to hold certain offices unless the required congressional supermajorities removed the restriction.
00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:56.799
Section 4 protected the public debt of the United States while rejecting Confederate debts and claims for compensation for the loss of enslaved people.
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And Section 5 gave Congress the power to enforce the amendment through appropriate legislation.
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Taken together, these provisions addressed citizenship, civil rights, political representation, the consequences of rebellion, and the enforcement of Reconstruction.
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But one major question remained unresolved.
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Even if black Americans were citizens, could a state prevent them from voting because of their race?
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The 14th Amendment had helped define citizenship and equal protection.
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The next amendment would address voting discrimination directly.
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Voting is more than a way to choose a president.
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It's a way for citizens to influence laws, select representatives, and hold government officials accountable.
00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:49.039
Without political power, people may have rights in theory, but struggle to defend those rights in practice.
00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:54.559
During Reconstruction, black men voted in large numbers in many southern states.
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Black Americans served in local and state governments, helped write new state constitutions, and entered Congress.
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In 1870, Haram Revels of Mississippi became the first black American to serve in the United States Senate.
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These developments represented a dramatic transformation in American democracy, but racial discrimination in voting remained a serious threat.
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So the Constitution again needed another amendment.
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The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870.
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It declared that the right of citizens to vote cannot be denied or abridged by the federal government or states on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
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In plain language, the government cannot deny a person the vote because that person is black, because of their skin color, or because they were previously enslaved.
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Like the 13th and 14th Amendments, the 15th also gives Congress the power to enforce its provisions through legislation.
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But here's an important distinction.
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The 15th Amendment did not establish an unrestricted right to vote for every adult citizen.
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It prohibited specific forms of discrimination, and it did not prohibit voting discrimination based on sex.
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Women remained excluded from voting in most elections, including black women who had endured both racial and gender discrimination.
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It would take another 50 years before the 19th Amendment prohibited denying the vote on account of sex.
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Even so, the 15th Amendment represented a major constitutional commitment.
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Race and previous enslavement could not be used as grounds for denying citizens the right to vote.
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For a time, that commitment helped transform political life across the South.
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But the amendment's opponents soon developed ways to undermine it.
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And that is where the story takes a darker turn.
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The Reconstruction Amendments had changed the Constitution.
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But constitutional language did not automatically change the attitudes, institutions, or behavior of everyone in the country.
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White supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, used threats, beatings, and murder to intimidate black voters, officeholders, and their allies.
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Congress responded with enforcement acts that gave the federal government additional tools to prosecute certain efforts to interfere with voting and other constitutional rights.
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Federal intervention temporarily weakened some of the violence.
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But opposition to Reconstruction continued.
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And as federal commitment to protecting Reconstruction weakened, Southern states found increasingly systematic ways to restrict black political participation.
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They imposed poll taxes, requiring citizens to pay a fee before voting.
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They introduced literacy tests that could be administered unfairly.
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They adopted grandfather clauses that exempted some people from voting restrictions if their ancestors had been eligible to vote before the Civil War, a time when enslaved black Americans were generally denied the vote.
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Other barriers included complicated registration procedures, intimidation, and outright violence.
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Many of these restrictions avoided explicitly mentioning race, but their design or administration often targeted black voters.
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The result was devastating.
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Cross must of the South, black citizens were pushed out of political life.
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White supremacist governments established and expanded Jim Crow, a system of racial segregation and discrimination.
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The Reconstruction Amendments remained in the Constitution, but their protections were often denied in practice.
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This reveals a fundamental distinction in constitutional democracy.
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A right written into the Constitution is not the same thing as a right that everyone can safely exercise.
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A person may possess the legal right to vote, but could be threatened at the voting place.
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A student may be entitled to equal protection, but Be excluded from school because of their race.
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A person may have constitutional freedom of speech, but face unlawful punishment for exercising it.
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The existence of a right matters enormously, but so does the willingness and ability of government institutions to enforce it.
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For generations, black Americans continued challenging racial discrimination through lawsuits, journalism, education, political organizing, protest, and community institutions.
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And they continued using the Constitution itself as a source of authority.
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The same amendments that had been adopted during Reconstruction would become central to the modern civil rights movement.
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In 1954, Brown v.
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Board of Education established that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause.
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In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, addressing discrimination in areas including public accommodations and employment.
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In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, creating stronger federal protections against discriminatory voting practices.
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Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's incorporation decisions had applied most protections to the Bill of Rights to state and local governments through the 14th Amendment.
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These developments did not end every form of discrimination, but they demonstrated the continuing power of the Reconstruction Amendments.
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The amendments had not disappeared during the decades when their promises were neglected.
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Their words were made available to citizens, lawyers, judges, legislators, and activists who demanded that the country live up to its constitution.
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The words remained.
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What changed over time was the country's willingness to enforce them.
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Let's step back and put the amendments together.
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The Thirteenth Amendment says, can one person legally own another person?
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Its answer is no.
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Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited, except for involuntary servitude imposed as punishment for a crime following a lawful conviction.
00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:04.799
The Fourteenth Amendment asks, who is a citizen and what protections must state governments provide?
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:11.440
It establishes birthright citizenship, protects due process, and requires equal protection of the laws.
00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:19.279
Over time, it also became the constitutional foundation for applying most of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments.
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The 15th Amendment asks, can the government deny a person the right to vote because of race, color, or previous enslavement?
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Its answer is no.
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Think of these amendments as addressing three connected dimensions of freedom.
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Freedom, citizenship, and political participation.
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Freedom means you cannot be legally owned by another person.
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Citizenship establishes your constitutional standing in the nation and helps secure your rights against government abuse.
00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:49.359
Political participation gives you a voice in choosing the people who make and enforce the laws.
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:55.839
During Reconstruction, the United States made some of the most important constitutional changes in its history.
00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:05.359
It abolished slavery, established a national rule for citizenship, and promised due process and equal protection, and prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
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Yet the country failed for generations to protect many of the people those amendments were written to defend.
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That failure does not make the amendments meaningless.
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It shows why constitutional democracy requires more than words on a page.
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Rights must be understood.
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They must be defended, and they must be enforced.
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When the Civil War ended, the United States had to confront a question that victory on the battlefield couldn't answer.
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What would freedom mean after slavery?
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A law can be written and still be violated.
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A right can be recognized and still be denied.
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A promise can be placed in the Constitution and still require generations of people to fight for its fulfillment.
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The Reconstruction Amendments did not amend America's struggle over freedom and equality.
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They gave that struggle new constitutional tools, and those tools continue to shape debates over civil rights, voting, government power, and equal treatment today.
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Here's today's fun fact.
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On March 31, 1870, a local election took place in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
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One of the voters was a black man named Thomas Mundy Peterson.
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Just one day earlier, the 15th Amendment had been officially certified.
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Peterson is widely recognized as the first black American known to cast a ballot under the amendment's protection.
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Think about what this meant.
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For generations, black Americans had been denied political rights through slavery and racial discrimination.
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Now, a constitutional amendment prohibited the government from denying citizens the vote because of race, color, or previous enslavement.
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And Peterson exercised that right.
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His ballot was cast in a local election, not a presidential one.
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But its significance reached far beyond the city.
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Fourteen years later, the people of Perth Amboy presented him with a medal honoring his historic vote.
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It was a reminder that constitutional change isn't only about what happens in Washington, D.C.
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Sometimes it becomes real in a local community, at a polling place, when one person exercises a right that the Constitution has promised to protect.
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Thomas Mundy Peterson's vote reminds us that behind every constitutional amendment are real people whose lives can be changed by its words.
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And that brings us back to the central lesson of today's episode.
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Writing freedom into the Constitution can change the law.
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Making that freedom real requires people to protect it.
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Thanks for listening to Constitution Unlocked, and we'll see you next time.
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