Why did 13 southern states reject the 14th Amendment?
Asked by: Alexander Rice | Last update: October 10, 2025Score: 4.8/5 (17 votes)
Southerners thought the 14th Amendment had been passed to punish them for starting the Civil War, and they refused to ratify it. Indeed there were sections which prevented ex-Confederates from voting, holding office, or being paid back for lending money to the Confederacy.
How did southerners react to the 14th Amendment?
Southerners still argued that the amendment was invalid, however, because the beaten southern states, then ruled by federal military commissions, were forced to ratify the amendment in order to regain their full legal status.
How did the South violate the 14th Amendment?
Unlike the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896, the Supreme court unanimously ruled that “separate, but equal” was unconstitutional and that the segregation of public schools, and other public spaces, violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments.
How did Southern states avoid the 13th Amendment?
In 1865 and 1866 southern states pass "Black Codes" which were laws to restrict the freedom of Blacks in the region. In the north these codes were viewed as a way to get around the 13th amendment and to allow slavery to exist under a different name.
Why did Republicans require Southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment?
In addition, each state was required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. After meeting these criteria related to protecting the rights of African Americans and their property, the former Confederate states could gain full recognition and federal representation in Congress.
What the 14th Amendment says about birthright citizenship
Why did southern states refuse to ratify the 14th Amendment?
Southerners thought the 14th Amendment had been passed to punish them for starting the Civil War, and they refused to ratify it. Indeed there were sections which prevented ex-Confederates from voting, holding office, or being paid back for lending money to the Confederacy.
Who opposed the 14th Amendment and why?
Opposition to the 14th Amendment was not limited to the South. In northern and western states, the Democratic Party appealed to white voters who opposed the idea of equal rights for African Americans.
Why did Congress require Southern states to ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments?
Southern states also resisted, but Congress required them to ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments as a condition of regaining representation in Congress, and the ongoing presence of the Union Army in the former Confederate states ensured their compliance.
Were sharecroppers only black?
Approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers were white, and one third were black. Though both groups were at the bottom of the social ladder, sharecroppers began to organize for better working rights, and the integrated Southern Tenant Farmers Union began to gain power in the 1930s.
What was the last state to abolish slavery?
On June 19, 1865 — Juneteenth — U.S. Army general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced General Order No. 3, proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas, which was the last state of the Confederacy with slavery.
Why did the 14th Amendment fail?
The amendment was limited by the fact that the Supreme Court largely ignored the Black Codes and did not rule on them until the 1950s and 1960s, almost a century after they were passed.
When did blacks get rights?
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution (1868) granted citizenship to formerly enslaved Americans, and the 15th Amendment (1870) established a constitutional right to vote for African American males.
Did any former Confederates serve in Congress?
In the years following the Civil War, more than 150 Union and Confederate veterans served as United States senators, helping to chart the nation's course well into the 20th century.
What states did not ratify the 14th Amendment?
The three states that rejected the Amendment before later ratifying it were Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The two states that ratified the Amendment and later sought to rescind their ratifications were New Jersey and Ohio.
What was the South's reaction to the 13th Amendment?
The Southern States, even the ones affected by the Emancipation Proclamation, opposed the Amendment though only four total states rejected it. Those states were Mississippi, Delaware, New Jersey, and Kentucky.
What does the 14th Amendment do that the 13th does not?
The 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment established African Americans as equal citizens of the United States.
What is the difference between slavery and sharecropping?
The reality is that sharecropping was former slave owners' way of recreating slavery under a different name in order to keep their source of labor. However, there were some improvements. In terms of the labor itself, former slaves had slightly more independence because they got to work their own portion of land.
Does sharecropping still exist in the US?
Mechanization and migration put an end to the sharecropping system by the 1960s, though some forms of tenant farming still exist in the 21st century.
Was sharecropping good or bad?
Through sharecropping, white landowners hoarded the profits of Black workers' agricultural labor, trapping them in poverty and debt for generations. Black people who challenged this system of domination faced threats, violence, and even murder.
Who is the person who ended slavery?
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Was slavery legal in Mississippi until 2013?
Until February 7, 2013, the state of Mississippi had never submitted the required documentation to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, meaning it never officially had abolished slavery. The amendment was adopted in December 1865 after the necessary three-fourths of the then 36 states voted in favor of ratification.
Did they required all 13 states to agree to any amendments?
The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783.
Are black people still considered 3-5?
It's out of date. Slaves (black people) in the US *were* counted as 3/5 of a free (white) person before and during the Civil War. When slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War, each free male citizen of the US counted as one person (for establishing the number of representatives a state had in Congress).
When were black people considered citizens?
When slavery ended in 1865, a period of Reconstruction began. By 1868, all Black persons born in the United States were citizens and equal before the law. But efforts to create an interracial democracy were contested from the start.
Why did Republicans require southern states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment?
Congress required former Confederate states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of regaining federal representation.