The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, a constitutional milestone included in America250’s history.
Congress passed the amendment on January 31, 1865, and the states ratified it on December 6, 1865. Its first section prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime after conviction. The amendment became effective during the aftermath of the American Civil War.
President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but that wartime measure applied primarily to enslaved people in areas rebelling against the Union. The Thirteenth Amendment made abolition permanent throughout the country and gave Congress authority to enforce the ban.
The amendment was followed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which addressed citizenship and equal protection, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying voting rights based on race. These three amendments are commonly called the Reconstruction Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment ended legal slavery, but racial discrimination and forced labor systems continued to require further civil-rights struggles.