The Amendment That Freed: Abolishing Slavery In America

The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States and its territories. Prior to the 13th Amendment, slavery was implicitly recognised in the Constitution, with provisions such as the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, which came into effect on January 1, 1863, freed slaves in Confederate-controlled areas but did not end slavery in border states that had remained loyal to the Union. The 13th Amendment provided a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery, stating that 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.

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The 13th Amendment

In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that "all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." However, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation since it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in rebellion and not even to the loyal "border states" that remained in the Union. Lincoln recognised that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States and its territories. However, the road to abolishing slavery was a long and arduous process that began with President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with the final proclamation taking effect on January 1, 1863. The proclamation was a bold step that changed the goals of the Civil War, which at the time was in its third year. Lincoln's proclamation was a military measure that applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery legal in the loyal border states. Despite this limitation, the Emancipation Proclamation was a significant milestone in the road to slavery's destruction and has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.

The Emancipation Proclamation transformed the character of the Civil War by adding moral force to the Union cause. It also allowed for former slaves to join the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union. The proclamation also confirmed the insistence of enslaved people that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom.

However, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery nationwide. In fact, slavery remained legal in several states, including Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. President Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment to guarantee the abolishment of slavery. This led to the proposal and eventual passage of the 13th Amendment, which provided that "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."

The 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, officially abolishing slavery in the United States and ensuring that the gains made by the Emancipation Proclamation would be permanent.

The Fugitive Slave Clause

The Clause was introduced as a compromise during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where the issue of slavery was hotly debated. The language of the Clause is notably ambiguous, avoiding the use of the words "slave" and "slavery". Historian Donald Fehrenbacher argues that this was a deliberate attempt to make it clear that slavery existed only under state law, not federal law. The exact wording of the Clause states:

> "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due."

The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865, which abolished slavery except as a punishment for crime, rendered the Fugitive Slave Clause mostly irrelevant.

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The Three-Fifths Compromise

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States. However, before the Civil War, the only mention of slavery in the Constitution was in the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The compromise stated that three-fifths of each state's slave population would be counted as part of its total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives. This gave the Southern states more power in the House relative to the North and resulted in a disproportionate representation of slave states in the House. It also gave slaveholders enlarged powers in Southern legislatures.

The compromise was part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which was superseded and explicitly repealed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.

The Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, with the exception of punishment for a crime. Before the 13th Amendment, slavery was only sparingly mentioned in the Constitution. The Three-Fifths Compromise, mentioned in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, was the only reference to the way enslaved persons were regarded by the federal government, being considered "three-fifths" of a fully free citizen. The Fugitive Slave Clause, located in Article IV, Section 2, asserted that a slave who was bound by the laws of their home state remained a slave even if they fled to a non-slavery state.

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, addressed citizenship rights and equal protection under the law for all persons. Thaddeus Stevens, the Republican floor leader in the House of Representatives, was a prominent supporter of the 14th Amendment. Born during George Washington's administration, Stevens dedicated his career to fighting for equal rights for Black Americans. During the Civil War, he was among the first to advocate for the emancipation of slaves and the enrollment of Black soldiers.

The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, colour, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment was important as, by 1869, voting rights had been restricted in all states to white men. The Reconstruction Amendments were intended to guarantee the freedom of the formerly enslaved, grant them certain civil rights, and protect them and all citizens of the United States from discrimination.

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