1865–1870Primary sourceWell documented

Abolition and the Reconstruction Amendments

On the timeline · around 1865–1870 · Democracy for All

What happened

Democracy long coexisted with slavery. After the American Civil War, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery (the 13th, 1865), guaranteed equal protection and citizenship (the 14th, 1868), and barred denying the vote on the basis of race (the 15th, 1870), at least on paper.

Why it matters

The Reconstruction Amendments began the long, contested work of extending the promise of democracy to all races — a promise that would not be honored in practice until the civil-rights movement a century later.

Sources

U.S. National Archives. 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) · Primary source

Related timelines

The Civil Rights Movement → — The unfinished promise of equal rights

Part of a timelineHistory of Democracy12 events · From an Athenian assembly to universal human rights — 2,500 years of the idea that people should rule themselves, every milestone sourced.View all →