What prompted the need for the Fourteenth Amendment? Southern states were enacting black code laws to keep recently freed slaves from obtaining the rights of other citizens.

Women who owned land and property wanted the right to vote on issues that impacted their livelihoods.

After the Civil War, the economies of the Northern states were negatively impacted by the Thirteenth Amendment.

Congress was worried about a divided country and wanted to limit the power of the president after the Civil War.