Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, is a pivotal piece of American constitutional law that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, with the exception of punishment for a crime. It is one of the three Civil War Amendments, alongside the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which aimed to secure the rights and participation of formerly enslaved individuals in American society. The amendment explicitly prohibits slavery and empowers Congress to enforce its provisions through appropriate legislation. While the ratification marked a significant victory for abolitionists, perspectives on its impact varied; some, like William Lloyd Garrison, celebrated it as the end of slavery, while others, such as Frederick Douglass, viewed it as just the beginning of a broader struggle for civil rights, including the right to vote. Over the following years, additional amendments and civil rights legislation further established protections for formerly enslaved people, culminating in the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights in 1870. The Thirteenth Amendment also has lasting relevance, as seen in its citation during the civil rights movement and in Supreme Court rulings that address ongoing racial inequalities.
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Thirteenth Amendment
Significance: The first of the Civil War Amendments states that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States.”
The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) was one of three amendments known as the Civil War Amendments along with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The combined purpose of these three amendments was to end slavery and promote the participation of former slaves in their country. The Thirteenth Amendment states, in full, “1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to its jurisdiction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
One of the battles surrounding the Thirteenth Amendment in particular, and all the Civil War Amendments in general, concerned the interpretation of the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment states that no federal legislation could detract from the power of state government. Those who opposed the Thirteenth Amendment claimed that the right to allow slavery was not specifically denied in the Constitution and therefore fell within the authority of the state.
With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, the long fight to abolish slavery was over. The amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, and officially announced on December 18, 1865. For some abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, the battle had been won: Slavery was ended. Others saw the Thirteenth Amendment as only a beginning.
Frederick Douglass did not have the same high hopes held by Garrison. Douglass believed that slavery would not be abolished until the former slaves acquired the right to vote. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 did not provide this right. It was not until the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, in 1868, that citizenship and the rights thereof were guaranteed to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Finally, in 1870, with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, former slaves were expressly given the right to vote. Within weeks, the first African American in the US Senate, Hiram R. Revels, took his seat.
During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Supreme Court cited the Thirteenth Amendment in its landmark ruling in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (1968), arguing that the Thirteenth Amendment gave Congress the power to eliminate racial barriers faced by black Americans "to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, and convey property, as it is enjoyed by white citizens" because such barriers constituted "badges and incidents of slavery."
Bibliography
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Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: Perseus, 2010. Print.
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