The Thirteenth Amendment

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Stephanie Englar
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  "As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom.... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper--the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see." - Booker T. Washington, age nine, in 1865.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863. It proclaimed all slaves in Confederate territory to be free. The intent was to directly affect the Confederate states, which had ceded from the Union. Lincoln issued the Proclamation under his authority as Commander-in-chief.

While the Emancipation Proclamation freed most of the slaves, it did not free them in the border states, the four slave-holding states that did not officially declare their succession from the United States before 1861. These states contained an estimated 800,000 slaves. Further, it did not make slavery illegal overall. To ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the United States, Lincoln pushed for the Thirteenth Amendment, which would complete the abolishment of slavery in the United States.

The Senate passed the Thirteenth Amendment on April 8, 1864. However, it was not passed in the House of Representatives. Lincoln added the amendment to the Republican Party Platform for the 1864 Presidential Election. After seven months of debate, the House passed the Thirteenth Amendment.

Shortly after the House passed the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865, eight months before the Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified.

Former President Andrew Johnson continued the push for the Thirteenth Amendment's ratification by all states. Finally, on 6 December 1865, three quarters of the states ratified the amendment when Georgia voted for ratification. The remaining nine states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment between December 1865 and March 1995. Although it voted for ratification in 1995, Mississippi completed ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in February 2013, after sending the paperwork to the Office of the Federal Registrar.

The Thirteenth Amendment is the first of three in the grouping of Reconstruction Amendments. The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. These amendments address slavery, citizenship, and voting rights. Together, they have helped shape America into the free democratic society we are today.