The End Of Slavery

The Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery was adopted December 6^th 1865.

The Thirteenth Amendment formally abolished slavery and forced servitude, except when used as punishment for crimes.  It was adopted December 6^th 1865.  It was the first of the Reconstruction Amendments.  President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 made slavery against the law only in the Confederate states.  The Thirteenth was the first new amendment to be added to the United States Constitution in more than sixty years.

The Senate passed the Thirteenth Amendment by a vote of 38 to 6 on April 8^th 1864.  The House of Representatives declined to take action.  It was reintroduced and with President Lincoln’s push, the Thirteenth passed the House January 31^st 1865 by 119 to 56.  The archival copy of the amendment includes the President’s signature along with the Speaker of House and the President of the Senate.

A web site to view the Thirteenth Amendment--Slavery and Involuntary Servitude
 

Control Through Laws

Mississippi passed the first Black Codes November 22nd 1865.

The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865 formally abolishing slavery through out the Untied States and her territories. Southern states began to look for a way to restore the control and economic power over African Americans that, that amendment had denied them. For some Southern’s vigilantism was the way they regained that control, for others it was through laws. Mississippi passed the first of these laws, known as Black Codes on November 22nd 1865. It directed that minor orphaned “freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes” be hired by civil officers, and then they were forbidden to leave their place of employment, and could be subjected to “moderate corporal chastisement”. There was a law requiring African Americans to carry evidence in writing of their employment. Mississippi’s legislature established special county courts to punish those who broke these laws. Other Southern state followed Mississippi’s lead, and created similar laws.

The United State Congress responded to these Black Codes by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The States ratified the Fourteenth Amendment two years latter guarantee “equal protection of the laws” to all people.