Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, a major freedom milestone relevant to America250?

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.

Congress passed the amendment on January 31, 1865, and the required number of states ratified it on December 6, 1865. Its text ended slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime after conviction.

President Abraham Lincoln strongly supported the amendment, and its ratification followed the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The proclamation had applied to enslaved people in areas rebelling against the Union, while the amendment established a nationwide constitutional prohibition.

The amendment is often confused with the Fourteenth Amendment, which established citizenship and equal protection, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which addressed voting rights for African American men. The Thirteenth Amendment ended legal slavery but did not by itself eliminate every form of racial discrimination or forced labor.