Well Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the union in 1860 and the S. thought they needed their own president and their own constitution. They created one hardly indistinct from the one they were leaving behind. Before Reconstruction started, Radical Republicans
(abolitionists before and during the Civil War) pushed
Constitutional amendments through Congress to guarantee
the rights of emancipated slaves. These “Radicals”
were responsible for the Emancipation proclamation
and thus wanted to ensure the freedmen’s
rights, constitutionally. The 13th Amendment of
1865 abolished slavery in the United States. The 14th
Amendment of 1868 defined citizenship (explicitly
male), and the 15th Amendment of 1870 guaranteed
black voting rights. But, the situation was complex
and southern whites did not take well to these amendments.
