Which statement BEST evaluates the intention of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and their immediate impact?

A) The amendments sought to ensure the protection of the rights of former slaves, but many Southern states passed legislation that effectively denied them true equality.

B) The amendments sought to prevent the exploitation of workers in the United States, but the practice of sharecropping remained widespread in the South.

C) The amendments sought to prevent radical violence in the South during Reconstruction, but the inability of federal authorities to enforce the law led to conflict.

D) The amendments sought to punish the former Confederate states for their role in the Civil War, but the majority were able to recover and prosper soon after the war.