The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
Congress passed the amendment on January 31, 1865, and the required states ratified it on December 6, 1865. Its first section prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime after lawful conviction.
The amendment followed the Emancipation Proclamation, which had declared enslaved people in areas still rebelling against the Union to be free from January 1, 1863. The proclamation was a wartime measure; the amendment permanently changed the Constitution and applied nationwide.
The Thirteenth Amendment was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments. The Fourteenth Amendment addressed citizenship and equal protection, while the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited denying voting rights because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.