On what date did the Thirteenth Amendment receive the ratification needed to abolish slavery?

The Thirteenth Amendment received the ratification needed to abolish slavery on December 6, 1865.

The amendment passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865. It prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime after conviction.

Georgia supplied the decisive 27th ratification on December 6, 1865. At that time, 27 of the 36 states had ratified the amendment, satisfying the constitutional requirement of approval by three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State William H. Seward formally proclaimed it part of the Constitution on December 18.

The amendment differed from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln's 1863 proclamation applied primarily to areas in rebellion and depended on wartime enforcement, while the amendment created a nationwide constitutional prohibition. Mississippi eventually ratified the amendment in 1995, though that action was not formally certified until 2013.