What constitutional amendment abolished slavery during Lincoln's presidency?

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States during Lincoln’s presidency. It also prohibited involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime after conviction.

Congress passed the amendment during the Civil War: the Senate approved it on April 8, 1864, and the House approved it on January 31, 1865. Lincoln strongly supported the measure and signed the joint resolution submitting it to the states. It became part of the Constitution when Georgia supplied the decisive ratification on December 6, 1865, after Lincoln’s assassination.

The amendment was broader and more permanent than the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation declared enslaved people free in areas controlled by the Confederacy, but it did not apply everywhere and rested on wartime presidential authority. The Thirteenth Amendment made abolition a constitutional rule across the entire country.