10/31/2016
13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
And Their Results
The 13th Amendment
• Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
• Section 2. Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
13th Amendment (1865) (Kind of)
Ended Slavery
• But one of the unintended results of the 13th
Amendment was the beginning of…
Sharecropping.
– a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a
tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop
produced on the land
(And, of course, the convict leasing system)
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The 14th Amendement
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Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens
of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection
of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at
any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in
Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any
of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any
way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President,
or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an
oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as
an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a
vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for
payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of
insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all
such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
14th Amendment (1868)
• Gave blacks
– citizenship,
– equal rights, and
– equal protection under the law
• Except then many communities created
“Black Codes”
– local laws passed to control newly freed slaves
The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana
• SECTION 1. - No negro shall be allowed to pass
within the limits of said parish without a
special permit in writing from his employer.
Whoever shall violate this provision shall pay a
fine of two dollars and fifty cents, or in default
thereof shall be forced to work four days on
the public road, or suffer corporeal
punishments as provided hereinafter.
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The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
• SECTION 2. - Every negro who shall be found
absent from the residence of his employer
after 10 o’clock at night, without a written
permit from his employer, shall pay a fine of
five dollars, or in default thereof, shall be
compelled to work five days on the public
road, or suffer corporeal punishments as
provided hereinafter.
The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
• SECTION 3. - No negro shall be permitted to rent or
keep a house within said parish. Any negro violating
this provision shall be immediately ejected…
• SECTION 4. - Every negro is required to be in the
regular service of some white person, or former owner,
who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said
negro. …Any negro violating the provisions of this
section shall be fined five dollars for each offence, or in
default of the payment thereof shall be forced to work
five days on the public road, or suffer corporeal
punishment as hereinafter provided.
The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
• SECTION 5. - No public meetings or congregations
of negroes shall be allowed within said parish
after sunset; but such public meetings and
congregations may be held between the hours of
sunrise and sunset, by the special permission in
writing of the captain of patrol, within whose
beat such meetings shall take place. This
prohibition, however, is not intended to prevent
negroes from attending the usual church services,
conducted by white ministers and priests.
• SECTION 6. - No negro shall be permitted to
preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to
congregations of colored people, without a
special permission in writing from the
president of the police jury. Any negro
violating the provisions of this section shall
pay a fine of ten dollars, or in default thereof
shall be compelled to work ten days on the
public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as
hereinafter provided.
The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
• SECTION 7. - No negro who is not in the
military service shall be allowed to carry firearms, or any kind of weapons, within the
parish, without the special written permission
of his employers, approved and indorsed by
the nearest or most convenient chief of
patrol…
• SECTION 8. - No negro shall sell, barter, or
exchange any articles of merchandise or traffic
within said parish without the special written
permission of his employer, specifying the articles
of sale, barter or traffic. Any one thus offending
shall pay a fine of one dollar for each offence, and
suffer the forfeiture of said articles, or in default
of the payment of said fine shall work one day on
the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment
as hereinafter provided.
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The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)
The 15th Amendment
• SECTION 14. - The corporeal punishment
provided for in the foregoing sections shall
consist in confining the body of the offender
within a barrel placed over his or her
shoulders, …such confinement not to continue
longer than twelve hours…
• Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
15th Amendment
Gave Black Men the Right to Vote
• But not women
• And just because the government said black men
had the right to vote, that doesn’t mean they
were actually allowed to vote:
– Poll Taxes
– Literacy Tests
– Grandfather Clause
• You didn’t need to pay the poll tax or take a literacy test if
you could vote prior to the Civil War OR you were the
descendant of anyone who could vote prior to the Civil War
Amendments What they did
13th
Ended Slavery
14th
• Citizenship
• Equal Rights
and Protection
15th
Right to Vote for
Black Men
Results/Ways
racist whites
reacted
Sharecropping,
Convict Leasing
Black Codes
Poorly made memes:
• Poll Taxes
• Literacy Tests
• Grandfather
Clause
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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed the
"Separate Car Act"
• Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens)
formed and decided to challenge the law
• Homer Plessy was to be their test case subject
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• Plessy was an
“Octoroon”
– Seven-eighths white and
one-eighth black
• Under Louisiana law
Plessy was black
– “One drop rule”
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• Plessy bought a first class ticket and boarded a
“Whites Only” car on the train
• When he refused to move to the car for blacks
he was arrested
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• The case went all the way to the Supreme
Court where Plessy’s lawyer argued:
– Plessy’s rights were being violated according to
the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, and
the 14th amendment, which guaranteed the same
rights to all citizens of the United States, and the
equal protection of those rights.
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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• The Supreme Court decided:
– Against Plessy, in a 7 to 1 decision
– One Justice said, “the enforced separation of the
two races [does not stamp] the colored race with
a badge of inferiority.”
– This decision helped cement the policy of
separate but equal: the policy of forcing whites
and blacks to use segregated facilities.
Plessy v. Ferguson
legitimized segregation!
Jim Crow Stories
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