st deprivations by state laws. One dissenter argued that it was the intention of Americans in adopting the Fourteenth Amendment to provide such protection and that state economic regulation could be limited by the due process clause.
The decision in the Slaughter-House Cases angered most reconstructionists. The majority opinion had asserted that the purpose of the framers of the Amendment was to protect the rights of the newly freed Blacks from oppression by their former masters in the South. Therefore, the provisions of the Amendment should be read narrowly, excluding protection of fundamental rights unrelated to the explicit purpose of the Amendment. The drafters of the Amendment, however, had actually had a much broader purpose in mind. They not only wished to redress the wrongs of slavery and protect the rights of the newly freed Blacks, they also intended to shift power from the states to the federal government. Recognizing that the Southern states could effectively hinder through legislation the exercise of rights by Blacks, the drafters so
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