Part C

The importance of amendments 12-15 –
The 12th amendment gave people the right to be able to vote for their presidents and vice presidents. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment gave equal rights to all citizens of the United States and the 15th amendment made it possible for all citizens of the United States able to vote. I would agree that these amendments were a major turning point in US history. The 13th amendment was huge in many ways, slavery was a large issue for all people of color and before the 13th amendment was ratified there were numerous problems regarding slavery. Then right after the 13th amendment the 14th amendment gave equal rights to all citizens, which made more things available for people who were recently restricted form doing things. Lastly the 15th amendment was also a large step in US history; it gave everyone the right to be able to vote without discrimination of race or previous jobs. These are important amendments because they mark a great change in US history after years of slavery and discrimination there was finally a large change that made a huge effect on people of color. Although the amendment seemed all well and good there were some restrictions to the new amendments. For example the 13th amendment did abolish slavery and the act of forcing people to work but if you committed a crime you were most likely going to be forced to do some type of involuntary work while in confinement. Also while the law did abolish slavery there were several states at the time that still had legal slavery.


Why I think the amendments were passed when they were-
Honestly all I can think of is that the people at the time wanted a change. The Civil War was also a big deal and I could only imagine that it only helped to further move along the many changes in law that were happening at the time. I would like to think that people began to see that people of color were no different than other people and that there was no reason to prolong the suffering of slaves. I noticed that there were some big gaps in when the laws were ratified. The 12th amendment was ratified in 1804. The 13th amendment wasn’t ratified until 1865. This makes me think that everyone was fine with slavery until a war erupted and it took that event to move things along in history. Then another 3 years for equal rights then 2 years for equal voting rights. Wow. Change was happening but very slowly, even after a war.

The amendment that I think was important (16-27)
I like the 26th amendment. I think it’s important because it gives you more responsibly and power as a citizen. We don’t vote very often for our representatives and being able to vote once you’re 18 sounds pretty good. As citizens we don’t get any power in the government and voting for who leads us every 4 years is all we get, so why not take advantage of that? I honestly think that a lot of people don’t vote anyway, but 18 is a ripe age when people start to realize their responsibilities and they take action in exercising their rights. Even if it is only once in a blue moon.