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Suffrage

 

            The freedom to vote came from many years of suffrage of women, minorities, African Americans and young adults. Being able to vote is a right that many people take for granted. And that's what defines our nation as a democracy. From what we have learned from history it seems that women and African Americans have fought for suffrage the most. Allowing everyone to vote did not appear over night with the ratification of the Constitution. .
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             The Articles of Confederation came to when the colonies declared there independence on July 4, 1776. This Confederation states that the colonies were to maintain their power and still stay the same. The United States government started a "league of friendship" when the Articles of Confederation failed. But at this time the government did not hold that much power, because the states wanted to retain as much power as possible. The states had the right to decide who had the right to vote. At first the states decided that only white land owning males had the right to vote. Later amendments to the US Constitution changed that. .
             In 1857, Chief justice ruled that African Americans "are not included under the word "citizens" in the Constitution." Then in 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, which is to make former slaves citizens. The Amendment says that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. The amendment was the first successful and serious attempt to shift the balance of power in the United States in favor of the federal government over the states. But with this amendment in tact the southern states were still able to find a way to limit voting to only white males. So, in 1870 the Fifteenth amendment "barred the federal and states government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude". The Fifteenth Amendment specifically gave the right to vote to black males.


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