Guest Essayist: James Legee
For nearly the first century of her existence, America had left a promise unfulfilled to both the souls that resided within her borders, as well as humanity at large. That promise, largely taken for granted today, cost the blood of nearly five thousand in the American Revolution and hundreds of thousands in the Civil War, is the revolutionary idea expressed in the Declaration of Independence that every person is born equal. The Civil War and Reconstruction fundamentally altered the Union, and most certainly for the better. The Civil War Amendments, the 13th, 14th, and 15th, sought to fulfill the promise of equality for those enslaved.