Which amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery?

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery in the United States.

Congress passed the amendment on January 31, 1865, and the required three-quarters of the states ratified it on December 6, 1865. Its first section prohibits 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 primarily to enslaved people in areas rebelling against the Union. Unlike the proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment established a nationwide constitutional rule.

The Fourteenth Amendment later addressed citizenship and equal protection, while the Fifteenth Amendment addressed voting rights for male citizens regardless of race. Those amendments are therefore related to Reconstruction but did not abolish slavery themselves.