Thirteenth Amendment Ratified: On This Day, 1865

On December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, was ratified:

Section 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.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

As a constitutional amendment, it was more permanent—and farther reaching—than the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order that applied solely to those states in rebellion.

The US Senate had initially passed the amendment in April 1864, but it failed in the House of Representatives. On December 6, 1864, in his annual message to Congress, President Abraham Lincoln threw his support behind the amendment. "In a great national crisis like ours," Lincoln explained, "unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very desirable. . . . In this case the common end is the maintenance of the Union." 

The Thirteenth Amendment was approved by Congress on January 31, 1865, and formally ratified on December 6, when Georgia became the 27th state (out of 36) to approve it. 

Learn more about Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition Movement and explore Gilder Lehrman Resources on the Civil War and Reconstruction.