Why was the Fourteenth Amendment added to the Constitution?
The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed shortly after the Civil War by northerners who realized that southern states were reducing the recently freed slaves to second class citizens. For example, freedmen were shut out of the political process and reduced to a slavery-like status by local vagrancy laws. To redress these injustices, the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed to ensure that the rights of freedmen were protected.
