On what date was the Thirteenth Amendment ratified?

The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.

The amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime. It reached the required threshold when Georgia became the 27th of the 36 states then in the Union to ratify it.

The Senate had passed the amendment on April 8, 1864, and the House approved it on January 31, 1865. President Abraham Lincoln supported the measure, but constitutional amendments require congressional passage and state ratification rather than a presidential signature.

The amendment is often confused with the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, and applied to enslaved people in areas controlled by the Confederacy. The Thirteenth Amendment created a nationwide constitutional prohibition. Secretary of State William H. Seward formally proclaimed it part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.