Which amendment ended slavery throughout the United States?

The Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery throughout the United States.

Congress passed the amendment on January 31, 1865, and the states ratified it on December 6, 1865. Its central provision abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime after conviction.

The amendment followed President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which applied to enslaved people in areas controlled by the Confederacy. The proclamation did not itself abolish slavery everywhere, so a constitutional amendment was needed for nationwide legal change.

The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, addressed citizenship and equal protection. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited denying voting rights on the basis of race. These three amendments are often grouped as the Reconstruction Amendments, but only the Thirteenth directly abolished slavery.