It created a political situation tantamount to slavery and it also placed in political power the same Southerners who had power before Reconstruction war (6)! Radical Republicans attempted to expand political equality for freedmen by passing Reconstruction amendments: the 13th ended slavery, the 14th granted equal protection under the law, and the 15th gave the right to vote to blacks. Unfortunately, the South, where most of the slaves were located, refused to ratify the 14th Amendment. This was passed after the first Reconstruction Act, with states required to ratify it in order to be readmitted to the Union. At the end of Reconstruction, blacks still suffered from political inequality in one way or another.