Life after the 13th/14th Amendments
With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865, slavery was officially abolished in the United States. The Reconstruction era was under way in the South and African Americans desperately needed an advocate. They looked to Fredrick Douglass to help and guide them. Douglas gladly took the role and did all he could to get ex-slaves on their way to a new life.
In many parts of the South, the newly freed slaves still worked under conditions similar to those existing before the war. The Union army could offer only limite…
