Understanding The Motivation Behind The 13Th Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed by Congress in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States and its territories. This amendment was necessary because the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, did not end slavery entirely. Lincoln and other leaders realised that amending the Constitution was the only way to officially end slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments, followed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which granted citizenship and voting rights to African-Americans. The Thirteenth Amendment also outlawed the practice of involuntary servitude and peonage, although it did not end discrimination against those who had been enslaved.

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The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham 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.

This proclamation was a significant milestone in the road to slavery's final destruction and has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom. However, it did not, in and of itself, end slavery.

Firstly, the Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure, and as such, it only applied to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy (the Southern secessionist states) that had already come under Northern control. The freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. Thus, the proclamation only had an immediate effect in those regions of the Confederacy where the US Army was already in place, emancipating between 25,000 and 75,000 people. As the Union army advanced through the South, the proclamation provided the legal framework for the liberation of more than 3.5 million enslaved people.

Secondly, the proclamation did not make slavery illegal. While it committed the Union to ending slavery in addition to preserving the Union, it did not have the power to abolish slavery in the exempted states. Lincoln understood this, and so urged the passage of an amendment that would end slavery once and for all. This resulted in the 13th Amendment, which finally abolished slavery in all of the US.

In conclusion, while the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, it fundamentally transformed the character of the Civil War, energizing abolitionists and undermining Europeans who wanted to intervene on behalf of the Confederacy. It also enabled the liberated to become liberators, with almost 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors fighting for the Union and freedom by the end of the war.

Lincoln's desire to end slavery

Abraham Lincoln is the leader most associated with the end of slavery in the United States. Lincoln frequently expressed his moral opposition to slavery, stating, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel." Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd, also came to oppose slavery as an adult, despite being the daughter of a slaveholder.

Lincoln's position on slavery became a prominent issue in the 1850s, following the advent of the Republican Party, whose official position was that freedom was "national" and slavery was "exceptional". In 1846, while a congressman from Illinois, Lincoln supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico. He also wrote a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, with compensation for owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a popular vote on the matter.

Lincoln's 1864 election platform resolved to abolish slavery by constitutional amendment, and after winning reelection, he made the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment his top legislative priority. He urged Congress on in his December 6, 1864, State of the Union Address, stating, "there is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for their action."

The Corwin Amendment

The amendment was designed to prevent civil war and preserve the Union by reassuring Southern states that their slave property would remain safe, even under the incoming Republican administration of Abraham Lincoln. It stated that "no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State."

Despite the approval of the Corwin Amendment by Congress, eleven Southern states seceded from the Union before it could be ratified. The actual Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery, was ratified in 1865 after the Civil War. The Corwin Amendment, therefore, failed to achieve its goal of preventing civil war and preserving the Union.

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The need to end involuntary servitude

The Southern position considered slaves as property, arguing that they could be moved to new territories. This led to proposals like the Wilmot Proviso in 1846, which aimed to ban slavery in territories acquired in the Mexican-American War. The country was on the brink of civil war, with growing support for the abolitionist movement. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, during the Civil War, declared slaves in Confederate-controlled areas free. However, it did not end slavery nationwide, and many slaves remained in bondage in Union-controlled states.

The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) became the constitutional solution to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude. It passed by a significant majority in the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865. The Amendment ensured that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude" would exist within the United States, except as punishment for a crime. This Amendment transformed the legal landscape, empowering Congress to enforce the ban through appropriate legislation.

The Thirteenth Amendment's significance cannot be overstated. It was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments, followed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which collectively expanded civil rights for Americans. While it did not address discrimination directly, it paved the way for subsequent constitutional promises of equality. The Amendment's language, empowering Congress to enforce it through legislation, was unprecedented and provided a broad scope for congressional power to abolish all "badges and incidents of slavery."

In conclusion, the need to end involuntary servitude was a critical and complex issue in American history. The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment was a transformative moment, abolishing chattel slavery in the South and ensuring that slavery would never again exist within the United States.

The Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th Amendment was the first of the Reconstruction Amendments and had a transformative impact on American history. It not only abolished chattel slavery in the Southern United States but also invalidated the Black Codes, laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War that aimed to maintain control over former slaves. For example, certain state laws mandated that African Americans sign year-long employment contracts and forfeit their entire year's wages if they left prematurely. The 13th Amendment's Section Two empowered Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibited racial discrimination and ensured equal rights in contracting, regardless of race.

The 14th Amendment, which was passed in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, and guaranteed them "the privileges and immunities of citizens" and "equal protection of the laws." This amendment ensured that the rights promised to all citizens would be upheld, addressing a limitation of the 13th Amendment, which did not explicitly ban discrimination or mandate civil and political rights.

The 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race, colour, or previous servitude. This amendment further expanded the civil rights of Americans, particularly those who had been previously enslaved, by ensuring their right to participate in elections.

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