The Thirteenth Amendment officially and permanently banned the institution of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed only those enslaved in rebellious states, leaving many enslaved people—most notably, those in the border states—in bondage; furthermore, it did not alter or prohibit the institution of slavery in general.
The Fifteenth Amendment granted the vote to all Black men, giving formerly enslaved people and free Black people greater political power than they had ever had in the United States. Black people in former Confederate states elected a handful of Black U.S. congressmen and a great many Black local and state leaders who instituted ambitious reform and modernization projects in the South. However, the Fifteenth Amendment continued to exclude women from voting. Women continued to fight for suffrage through the NWSA and AWSA.