Slavery Abolished: Thirteenth Amendment Ratified
The Senate passed the Thirteenth Amendment on April 8, 1864, but the House initially fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Lincoln made ratification a priority of his reelection campaign and applied intense political pressure during the January 1865 lame-duck session, reportedly offering patronage appointments to wavering Democrats. The House passed it 119-56 on January 31, 1865, just barely clearing the threshold. Secretary of State William Seward certified ratification on December 6, 1865, after 27 of 36 states had approved it. The amendment's language was deceptively simple: 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, shall exist within the United States.' That exception clause for criminal punishment would later become the legal foundation for convict leasing systems across the South that subjected Black prisoners to conditions indistinguishable from slavery well into the twentieth century.
January 31, 1865
161 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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