Amendment, Thirteenth

Amendment to the US Constitution in 1865 that abolished slavery. It states that ‘neither slavery nor involuntary servitude’ shall exist in the USA and gives Congress the power to enforce this article by legislation. Slavery had been somewhat eroded by the federal restriction on the importation of slaves in 1808, the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and legislative bans against slavery in many of the states prior to 1865, but the Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the USA for the first time.

The Thirteenth Amendment emancipated slaves during the Civil War. It also served to show the rest of the world that the USA was seriously committed to abolition and helped to win the country foreign aid. Some, such as US president Andrew Johnson, believed that slavery impeded commerce and many looked forward to new growth in the labour market.

However, although slavery had theoretically been banned, southern states quickly passed a series of restricting statutes, known as the ‘Black Codes’. These often required African-American agricultural workers to sign labour contracts that bound them to their employers for a year. Vagrancy laws were used to force African Americans into labour contracts and to limit freedom of movement. Such codes were an expression of the South's determination to maintain control over former slaves, and the practice caused strong concern among northern Republicans.

The repercussions of the Thirteenth Amendment resulted in the unemployment of large numbers of African Americans, and shanty towns grew up around some southern towns. Black Codes stipulated that an unemployed African American was either to be run out of town, or arrested and assigned to labour of the local authority's choosing.

Although the Thirteenth Amendment declared slavery illegal, it did not guarantee freedom or equal rights for African Americans. The right of US citizenship was granted under the Fourteenth Amendment (1868), while voting rights (for male US citizens) were secured under the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 (see Amendment, Fourteenth and Amendment, Fifteenth).