The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”, therefore giving citizenship to African Americans as well. “Fourteenth Amendment” published by the Enclycopædia Britannica remarks that, “This so-called Reconstruction Amendment prohibited the states from depriving any person of ‘life, liberty, or property, without due process of law’ and from denying anyone within a state's jurisdiction equal protection under the law”. It banned former Confederate military officers from obtaining office, and excused state and federal government from debts caused by the Confederate state as well.