The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.
Congress passed the amendment in 1865 during the final stages of the Civil War. The Senate approved it on April 8, and the House of Representatives approved it on January 31. The required number of states ratified it on December 6, and it was proclaimed part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.
The amendment provided a permanent constitutional basis for abolition. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect in 1863, but it applied primarily to enslaved people in areas under Confederate control and rested on wartime authority. The Thirteenth Amendment addressed slavery throughout the country.
It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments. The Fourteenth Amendment addressed citizenship and equal protection, while the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited denying voting rights based on race. Confusing these amendments is common, but only the Thirteenth directly abolished slavery.