December 1865

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865, formally abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was the culmination of decades of abolitionist struggle and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives in the Civil War, and it transformed the legal status of four million formerly enslaved people.

The 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, formally abolishing slavery throughout the United States. The amendment passed Congress in January 1865 after intense lobbying. For four million formerly enslaved people, ratification marked legal freedom, though the exception clause permitting forced labor as criminal punishment left a significant loophole that would be exploited for decades.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States — except as punishment for crime. The exception clause immediately became the legal basis for convict leasing, chain gangs, and forced labor systems that re-enslaved tens of thousands of Black Southerners in the decades ahead. In the moment, however, four million people were legally free for the first time.