What are civil rights? What does the Constitution say about them? Why did the idea of civil rights appear comparatively late in the development of the United States?

What will be an ideal response?

An ideal response will:
1, Define civil rights as government guarantees of equality for people in the United States, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity.
2, Identify that neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights said anything about equality beyond insisting that all Americans are equally entitled to due process in the courts.
3, Discuss how Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were more interested in protecting individuals from government than in guaranteeing political rights through government.