Blog Post #3

Eric Foner explains the influence of “Making of Radical Reconstruction.” He mentions the 14th amendment quite a few times in this reading explaining that it is more than “If you are born in the US, you are a citizen.” Foner ties the 14th amendment to “Radical Reconstruction”, he explains how the Republicans wrote into the Constitution their view of the Civil War. The other part of the 14th amendment is how all citizens are protected by law and allow all males to vote so the south have more representation in Congress. According to the reading “civil rights became the foundation of the 14th amendment.” I learned that the 14th amendment no longer allowed states to apply their own set of laws because all US citizens became protected by national law. This led to progress in “legal equality.” However, the 14th amendment created conflict due to the possibility of black men being able to vote. This also did not sit well with feminist supporters because the amendment only allowed black men to get the benefits of the amendment. The importance of African American votes grew changing the way the tide of any vote ended up with. Benefits from black votes would change the outcome bills, laws, and elections. With black votes counting for the same as white men, the treatment of African Americans possibly grew in order to have another for a certain bill they wanted to pass.