Which amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States?

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States. Congress passed it on January 31, 1865, and the required number of states ratified it on December 6, 1865.

Its first section states that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited, except as punishment for a crime after conviction. The amendment ended the legal institution of slavery after the Civil War and applied across the country, including areas where wartime emancipation measures had not permanently settled the issue.

President Abraham Lincoln strongly supported the amendment and helped secure its passage in the House of Representatives. The amendment followed the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which applied primarily to enslaved people in areas rebelling against the Union and rested on wartime presidential authority.

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 on racial grounds. None of those amendments abolished slavery; that was the Thirteenth Amendment’s specific role.