The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, passed between 1865 and 1870, the five years immediately following the Civil War. Amendment XIII (the Thirteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution abolished slavery and, with the exception of allowing punishments for crimes, prohibits involuntary servitude. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ... Contemporary drawing depicting the first vote by African Americans Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution grants voting rights regardless of race. ... The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as the U.S., the Union, the North, or the Yankees; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as the Confederate States of America, the CSA, the Confederacy...

The Amendments were intended to restructure the United States from a country that was (in Abraham Lincoln's words) "half slave and half free" to one in which the constitutionally guaranteed "blessings of liberty" would be extended to the entire populace, including the former slaves and their descendants. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was an American politician who served as the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... This poster depicting the horrific conditions on slave ships was influential in mobilizing public opinion against slavery in Britain and the United States. ...

The Thirteenth Amendment (proposed and ratified in 1865) abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868 included the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, grants voting rights regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Due process of law is a legal concept that ensures the government will respect all of a persons legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights, when the government deprives a person of life, liberty, or property. ... The words inscribed above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court are: Equal justice under law The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that no state shall… deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ...