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The Civil Rights Amendments

The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States (1864-70) ended slavery in the United States and guaranteed Federal protection for equal rights. The Fourteenth Amendment in particular interacts with the Bill of Rights to allow most of the contemporary challenges of the constitutionality of legislative, executive, and administrative action that are heard by the Supreme Court of the United States, or ruled on by Federal and State Courts.

The Quill Project worked during 2019-2022 to complete its foundational work on the presentation of the records relating to the wording of these Amendments. This project represents the first systematic attempt to bring together all of the extant records relating to the wording of these important additions to the US constitution and to allow the process of debate that created them to be explored in detail and with accuracy, drawing on archival material that has never been made so accessible.

As well as presenting the history of the various resolutions and amendments that ultimately became the reconstruction amendments, we have also charted the history of important related legislation and other (failed) amendments that themselves shed light on the debates that shaped the ultimate form of the Reconstruction Amendments. Details of this additional material are given within the specific projects that make up this collection, and we expect to add to it over time.