13th Amendment In America Essay

The Constitution should change with society. Like all societies, ours changes with time. Like it or not, things will be different in the future. Although we agree with things we are doing now, we may not in the future. Our constitution is ment to be part of a lasting government in the land of the free. If the USA really wishes to be held up to that title, its people must be able to agree, and if needed, change the Constitution.

The Constitution is a living, breathing document. It was recognized that each future generation would be facing new challenges that would have never occurred to the older ones, so it had the flexibility available by both interpretation and revisement to allow the newer generation to use the document as it was intended. As society and government grows, additions must be made to the Constitution to keep with the times. The Constitution is also governed by the thoughts of society at that time, seen in the implementation of the 18th amendment because of the urgings of religious and Women’s Suffrage movements. As it is also seen when the government grows weary of one president in office too long, seen in the creation of the 22nd amendment.

The genre of “Saving the Right to Organize” would be an article. This would be a secondary source because it is an article, and it refines the primary source. The topic of this source would be that it focuses on the 13th Amendment replacing the Wagner Act on labor movements in the U.S. Percentage of U.S. workers who were unionized in 1953. A good thesis from this source would be Mark Dudzic’s words, “Articulating [worker] right[s] solely as an

Since the ratification of the Constitution, more than 11,000 amendments have been proposed. The Constitution of the United States of America was Officially ratified in 1789. This makes the document over two-hundred years old. Since the time of its writing and eventual ratification, the document has been amended and interpreted in many ways. Whether it be prohibition to the abolition of slavery. The Constitution has been constantly updated over time. It has not laid stagnant with the time. The Constitution has remained the document off of which we have based our country for many years. A major question that has been posed is, why do we as a country still feel bound to this document written so many years ago? The reasons are fairly simple. The Constitution of the United States can and has been over many years amended, the laws and thoughts of a people can be expressed through the Constitution, and the constitution has functioned, with a few bumps in the road, fairly well over the last two-hundred years. The people of the United States should still stand behind this Constitution because it infact still serves us well today in many ways. A few being that it can be amended and “Fixed”, and another being that it does still protect our rights as citizens.

The framers of our Constitution knew that time has a way of changing countries and their citizens. Our country was in a whirlwind of change in 1789 as people were experiencing freedom from the tyranny of England for the first time in their lives. Our country was being molded and formed into a great nation by the founding fathers. Expectations and rules had to be set to protect the rights of the minorities and majorities. Amendments to the Constitution were written to ensure equality for all in changing times.

Issued by Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation set all slaves, under Confederate control, free, and armed black troops for the Civil War. A year later, beginning in September of 1864, Maryland, Tennessee, Missouri, and Louisiana abolished slavery. Shortly after, approved by Congress in February of 1865 and ratified in December, the Thirteenth Amendment was official. This amendment abolished slavery throughout the entire Union, which finally freed Kentucky and Delaware slaves. The war started as a fight to preserve the Union, but the new amendment went to show that the war had shifted to a fight to end slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment resulted in the abolition of slavery permanently. Although this freedom did not mean equality. Northern African Americans had been battling for their civil rights before and after the war. They were petitioning and campaigning at the state level, and created the National Convention of Colored Men and the National Rights League at the national level. None of these had as big of an impact as when the Radical republicans in Congress got involved to help overturn the inequalities.

The passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 addressed civilian’s rights and equal protection of the laws in a subsequent response to issues relating to former slaves. Through ratifying this amendment, its primary purpose was for “…the federal government to take these four million newly freed slaves and integrate them fully into society virtually immediately.” (“The Supreme Court's Failure to Protect Blacks' Rights.”) However, the opposite of what was initially promised occurred due to the Amendment ultimately lacking the constitutional authority for the Congress to grant equal protection to African Americans under the law, stating that “…only states and local governments could do that.” (“The Supreme Court's Failure to Protect Blacks' Rights.”)

The U.S Constitution has evolved over time from what the original writers wanted. Most importantly, these changes are positive because equality is what the United States is all about. These changes pertain to the amendments regarding right to bare arms, slavery, and the right for all male citizens to vote.

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it cannot forget what the soldiers did here” are the words esteemed President Lincoln spoke years ago on the field of the deadliest battle in our country’s history. Today, students across the country pull out copies of his monumental words and travel long distances to view the Gettysburg memorial, in order to fully remember the soldiers who fought on that day. But it was more than the soldier’s courage that makes them recalled by generations of people. It was the vision they strived for. Now, the 13th Amendment stands in place of these fallen soldiers, a concrete representation of the ideals many fought for. The 13th Amendment honored the courageous soldiers, who gave “their

It has been two hundred and twenty years since the Constitution was written. In that short amount of time, we have fought several wars and made new discoveries that brought us one step closer to the future. During all of this, society’s political views have slowly shifted over the past two hundred years. From women’s suffrage to civil rights, to same gender marriage, we have adopted beliefs that would have been considered unthinkable during the era that the Founding Fathers lived in. Each of these political accomplishments would not have been possible without the process of Amendments that was put in place by the Founding Fathers. However, each of these accomplishments took several years, and even decades, to accomplish because we continue

Slavery is alive in the United States of America; it’s just morphed to fit itself into modern times. Every time I see the text of the 13th Amendment, I wonder if that little caveat was intentional or just really naïve.

In the 1860s, the north and the south fought against each other over the long-standing controversy over slavery. At the end of the Civil War, the 13th amendment abolish slavery and slaves were free from their masters. The ex-slaves were free, but it would take some time for them to gain equal rights. Former slaves faced obstacles for equal rights like voting and segregation for nearly a century. Although the 14th and 15th amendments helped blacks with equal rights, there was no one to blaze a trail for blacks until Martin Luther King Jr. came along. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist and became a figurehead during the Civil Rights Movement for his peaceful protests. Martin Luther King Jr. peacefully stood against racial

After the Civil War, America experienced a period called Reconstruction. In this period promptly taking after the Civil War, the central government pointed towards bringing together the United States again. The defiant Southerners who had battled in the Confederate military were currently compelled to join the Northerners trying to reproduce the United States. Ex-subjugated African Americans were still struggling to be treated fairly in a country which had been separated somewhat because of the point of subjection. Numerous adjustments in the legislature had occurred subsequent to the Civil War. In the months taking after the Election of 1876, however before the initiation in March 1877, Republican and Democratic pioneers subtly worked out

Professor Larry Sabato is the founder of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia presents 23 proposals to revitalize our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country. His book provides insight for a hard fought debate. Whether you like his suggestions or not or you agree with him or not, you have to respect anyone that can outwardly state that the United States Constitution as it has been handed down is “outdated.” This quest for reform I’m sure would anger many political conservatives who believe that the Constitution that we know today, is not in need of any reform, and is just the true document that is has always been and should remain.

The United States is most known as “the land of the free;” ironically having one of the highest prison populations in the world. Humans are being deprived of their freedom in the name of law and order. Predominantly, colored people are being brutally abused by police officers, dehumanized until people no longer represent a problem for the system. The authority given by the 13th Amendment gives official representatives the power to take such actions. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been daily convicted, shall exist within the United States on any place subject to their jurisdiction.”