The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution made slavery and involuntary servitude illegal, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by
Abolitionist imagery focused on atrocities against slaves. (Photo of Peter, 1863.)
Abraham Lincoln
Representative James Mitchell Ashley proposed an amendment abolishing slavery in 1863.
Celebration erupts after the Thirteenth Amendment is passed by the House of Representatives.
Reconstruction Amendments
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The Reconstruction Amendments, or the Civil War Amendments, are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870. The amendments we
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
…31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18, 1865. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, effective on January 1, 1863, declared that the enslaved…
Slavery is dead? Thomas Nast presents the Republican argument for federal civil-rights legislation and constitutional amendment in this illustration for the January 12, 1867 issue of Harper's Weekly
A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865, entitled "The 'Rail Splitter' at Work Repairing the Union." The caption reads (Johnson): Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever!! (Lincoln): A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended!
Text of the 13th Amendment
Text of the 15th Amendment