Constitutional text · 1865

Thirteenth Amendment

The amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime, and empowered Congress to enforce the ban by appropriate legislation. The Senate approved it in April 1864, and the House, after an intense campaign by President Lincoln, followed on January 31, 1865; ratification was completed on December 6, 1865.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

December 6, 1865

Why it matters

The first of the three Reconstruction amendments, it made permanent and nationwide the freedom the Emancipation Proclamation had declared as a war measure. Republican majorities in Congress, joined by some Democrats in the House, supplied the two-thirds votes needed to send it to the states.

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Primary Source

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Subjects

slavery emancipation constitution reconstruction

From the library

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