Amendments XIII
Slavery Abolished
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1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Ratified: December 6, 1865
The 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery, was proposed on January 31, 1865.
| # | State | Date | * |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | Feb 1, 1865 | |
| 2 | Rhode Island | Feb 2, 1865 | |
| 3 | Michigan | Feb 3, 1865 | |
| 4 | Maryland | Feb 3, 1865 | |
| 5 | New York | Feb 3, 1865 | |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | Feb 3, 1865 | |
| 7 | West Virginia | Feb 3, 1865 | |
| 8 | Missouri | Feb 6, 1865 | |
| 9 | Maine | Feb 7, 1865 | |
| 10 | Kansas | Feb 7, 1865 | |
| 11 | Massachusetts | Feb 7, 1865 | |
| 12 | Virginia | Feb 9, 1865 | |
| 13 | Ohio | Feb 10, 1865 | |
| 14 | Indiana | Feb 13, 1865 | |
| 15 | Nevada | Feb 16, 1865 | |
| 16 | Louisiana | Feb 17, 1865 | |
| 17 | Minnesota | Feb 23, 1865 | |
| 18 | Wisconsin | Feb 24, 1865 | |
| 19 | Vermont | Mar 8, 1865 | |
| 20 | Tennessee | Apr 7, 1865 | |
| 21 | Arkansas | Apr 14, 1865 | |
| 22 | Connecticut | May 4, 1865 | |
| 23 | New Hampshire | Jul 1, 1865 | |
| 24 | South Carolina | Nov 13, 1865 | |
| 25 | Alabama | Dec 2, 1865 | |
| 26 | North Carolina | Dec 4, 1865 | |
| 27 | Georgia | Dec 6, 1865 | * |
| 28 | Oregon | Dec 8, 1865 | |
| 29 | California | Dec 19, 1865 | |
| 30 | Florida | Dec 28, 1865 | |
| 31 | Iowa | Jan 15, 1866 | |
| 32 | New Jersey | Jan 23, 1866 | |
| 33 | Texas | Feb 18, 1870 | |
| 34 | Delaware | Feb 12, 1901 | |
| 35 | Kentucky | Mar 18, 1976 | |
| 36 | Mississippi | Mar 16, 1995 * | |
| Ratified in 309 days | |||
* Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995, but because the state never officially notified the US Archivist, the ratification is not official.
This amendment was specifically rejected by Delaware on Feb 8, 1865; by Kentucky on Feb 24, 1865; by New Jersey on Mar 16, 1865; and by Mississippi on Dec 4, 1865. Florida reaffirmed its ratification on Jun 9, 1868.
History: Slavery was an institution in America in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Southern states, with their agricultural economies, relied on the slavery system to ensure the cash crops (cotton, hemp, rice, indigo, and tobacco, primarily) were tended and cultivated. Slaves were not unknown in the North, but abolition in the North was completed by the 1830's. In 1808, the Congress prohibited the slave trade, not a year later than allowed in the Constitution. A series of compromises, laws, acts, and bills tried to keep the balance between the slave states and the non-slave states. For a more thorough history of slavery, see the Slavery Topic Page.
South Carolina voted to secede from the United States as a result of Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency. Lincoln had, over time, voiced strong objections to slavery, and his incoming administration was viewed as a threat to the right of the states to keep their institutions, particularly that of slavery, the business of the states. More states seceded, eleven in all, forming the Confederate States of America. The secession movement led to the Civil War. In the waning days of the war, which ran from 1861 to 1865, the Congress approved an amendment to abolish slavery in all of the United States. Once the CSA was defeated, approval of the 13th Amendment was quick in the Northern states. By the end of 1865, eight of the eleven Confederate states had also ratified it. Proposed on January 31, 1865, it was ratified on December 6, 1865 (309 days). Eventually, all of the CSA states except Mississippi ratified the 13th after the war; Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995.
