13TH AMENDMENT TO THE AMERICANS

Ratified in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution formally abolished slavery in the United States. It had been preceded by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which freed slaves in Confederate territory during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln felt that amending the Constitution would solidify the amendment’s position. The actual words “slavery” and “slave” are not specifically mentioned in the amendment, but it invalidated sections of the Constitution that indirectly allowed slave ownership. Lincoln signed the document on February 1, 1865, but did not live to see it become law as he was assassinated on April 15, 1865.