13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments

And Their Results

13th Amendment (1865) 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

Who wants to be a sharecropper?!!!!

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

St. Landry’s Parish,Louisiana

The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)

• 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.

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)

• 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.

The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)

• 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)

• SECTION 7. - No negro who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms, 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…

The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)

• 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.

The Black Code of St. Landry’s Parish (1865)

• 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…

15th AmendmentGave 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 don’t need to pay the poll tax or take a literacy test if you could vote prior to the Civil War OR you are the descendant of anyone who could vote prior to the Civil War

Amendments What they didResults/Ways racist whites

reacted

13th Ended Slavery Sharecropping

14th • Citizenship• Equal Rights

and Protection

Black Codes

15th Right to Vote for Black Men

• Poll Taxes• Literacy Tests• Grandfather

Clause

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.

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. Fergusonlegitimized segregation!

Jim Crow Stories