Question

What was the reason behind the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment?

A. To help women gain the right to vote
B. To limit the power of large corporations
C. To ensure that states would remain loyal to the Union
D. To protect the rights of freedmen

Answer 1

The Fourteenth Amendment was passed to protect the rights of freedmen by granting them citizenship rights and equal protection under the law, thus preventing state discrimination against them.

Step-by-step explanation:

The reason behind the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment was D. To protect the rights of freedmen. This amendment was one of the Reconstruction Amendments intended to ensure civil liberties for freed slaves following the Civil War. The amendment addressed several pivotal issues: it granted citizenship rights, established equal protection under the law, nullified the Dred Scott decision, and overturned the three-fifths compromise.

The main focus of the Fourteenth Amendment was to prevent states from enacting laws that would discriminate against particular groups of people and to ensure that the states would respect the civil liberties of freed people. While the Fifteenth Amendment specifically aimed to secure the right to vote for Black men, the Fourteenth Amendment laid the groundwork for equality before the law.