Malcolm Rivera
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the United States and its territories. Prior to the 13th Amendment, slavery was not expressly mentioned in the Constitution, and several provisions, including the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause, pertained to the treatment of enslaved persons. 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 or address its future in prospective states. Thus, the 13th Amendment provided a constitutional solution to the issue of slavery, ensuring its abolishment and expanding civil rights for Americans.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Amendment Number | 13th Amendment |
| Date Passed by Congress | January 31, 1865 |
| Date Ratified | December 6, 1865 |
| Number of States that Ratified | 27 out of 33 |
| Date Officially Certified and Accepted into the Constitution | December 18, 1865 |
| Text | "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." |
| Powers Granted to Congress | Power to enforce the article by appropriate legislation |
| Previous Amendments that Referenced Slavery | Three-Fifths Compromise, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3; Fugitive Slave Clause, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 |
| Previous Documents that Freed Slaves | Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln, effective January 1, 1863 |
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What You'll Learn
The 13th Amendment
Prior to the 13th Amendment, the Constitution included several provisions regarding enslaved persons, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which allocated Congressional representation based on a combination of "free persons" and "three-fifths of all other persons". This compromise was a result of tensions between Southern and Northern politicians, with the former seeking to count enslaved African-Americans as 'persons' for congressional representation and the latter rejecting this idea due to concerns about giving too much power to the South.
The adoption of the 13th Amendment marked a significant turning point in American history, providing a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery. It was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments, along with the 14th and 15th Amendments, that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans. With the ratification of this amendment, chattel slavery was banned and declared illegal across the United States and its territories, ensuring freedom for those who had been enslaved.
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The Emancipation Proclamation
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring:
> [A]ll 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.
The proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. It applied to the ten states that were still in rebellion but excluded several border states, including Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as parts of Virginia and Louisiana.
Amendment Location: Second Amendment in the Constitution
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Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, was a clause in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. It required a "person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) in one state to be returned to their master in the state from which they escaped. The clause was created to handle the apportionment of the large enslaved population across the country, specifically for measuring the number of seats individual states should have in the House of Representatives.
The Fugitive Slave Clause stated that:
> 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 clause was rendered mostly irrelevant by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for a crime). The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. It states:
> 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.
Despite the Fugitive Slave Clause's constitutional authority, resistance to its enforcement in the North increased in the 19th century, particularly after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Several Northern states enacted "personal liberty laws" to protect free Black residents from kidnapping and provide safeguards for accused fugitives. For example, Massachusetts prohibited state officials from assisting in fugitive slave renditions and banned the use of state facilities for holding alleged fugitives.
The Fugitive Slave Clause's ambiguous wording has been the subject of debate among modern legal scholars. Some argue that its vague wording was a political compromise that avoided overtly validating slavery at the federal level, while others contend that it functionally entrenched slaveholder power.
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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, prior to this amendment, the Constitution included several provisions that referenced "unfree persons." One of these provisions was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which was part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution.
The Three-Fifths Compromise, also known as the Constitutional Compromise of 1787, was an agreement reached during the United States Constitutional Convention. This compromise addressed the inclusion of slaves in counting a state's total population, which would determine the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the allocation of electoral votes, and the amount of taxes paid by each state. The compromise stated that each state's slave population would be counted as three-fifths of a person toward the state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives.
This compromise was struck between delegates from the Northern and Southern states. Southern politicians wanted enslaved African-Americans to be counted as 'persons' for congressional representation, while Northern politicians rejected this idea because representation in the new Congress would be based on population. The compromise gave Southern states more power in the House relative to the North, as it granted them disproportionate representation. It also increased the direct federal tax burden on slaveholding states.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was superseded by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which explicitly repealed the compromise. This amendment ensured that the former slaves would remain free and that the Southern states would not regain the power they had held under the Three-Fifths Compromise.
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Civil War Amendments
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the United States and its territories, except as punishment for a crime. Prior to the Thirteenth Amendment, the Constitution did not use the words "slave" or "slavery" but included several provisions regarding unfree persons. The Three-Fifths Compromise, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, allocated Congressional representation based on "the whole Number of free Persons" and "three-fifths of all other Persons".
The Thirteenth Amendment was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments (or Civil War Amendments) that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans. The Fourteenth Amendment, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law for all persons. It eliminated the three-fifths rule and punished states that did not permit male citizens over 21 to vote by reducing their proportional representation. The Fifteenth Amendment, proposed in 1869 and ratified in 1870, prohibits discrimination in voting rights based on "race, colour, or previous condition of servitude".
The Reconstruction Amendments were adopted in the five years immediately following the American Civil War, as part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South. They were intended to guarantee the freedom of the formerly enslaved, grant them certain civil rights, and protect them and all citizens from discrimination. The Thirteenth Amendment was proposed by President Lincoln, who recognised that the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which declared the freedom of slaves in Confederate-controlled areas, would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
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Frequently asked questions
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.
The 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865.
The 13th Amendment forever abolished slavery as an institution in all U.S. states and territories. It also outlawed the practice of involuntary servitude and peonage.
President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring that the enslaved in Confederate-controlled areas were free. However, he recognised that a constitutional amendment was necessary to guarantee the abolishment of slavery. Lincoln did not live to see the ratification of the 13th Amendment as he was assassinated shortly after the end of the Civil War.
Yes, there was an abolitionist movement in the North calling for the immediate end of slavery nationwide. Proposals to eliminate slavery through a constitutional amendment were introduced as early as 1818 by Representative Arthur Livermore and in 1839 by John Quincy Adams, but they failed to gain traction.
