ENTRY

Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, The

SUMMARY

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished and permanently prohibited the reintroduction of slavery throughout the country. Congress submitted it to the states on January 31, 1865, and it was ratified on December 6, 1865. It was the first of three amendments adopted during Reconstruction that profoundly altered American society, government, and politics. The Fourteenth Amendment that defined citizenship and guaranteed the rights of citizens was ratified in July 1868, and the Fifteenth Amendment that granted the vote to African American men was ratified in February 1870.

Emancipation

The Thirteenth Amendment did not free any of the approximately half a million Virginia men, women, and children who had lived in slavery when the American Civil War (1861–1865) began because they had all become free before the ratification of the amendment. The Virginia Constitution of 1864, which went into effect on April 7, abolished slavery in the parts of the state that the Restored government of Virginia administered during the war. With the collapse and disappearance of the government of the Confederate State of Virginia in April 1865, that constitution legally terminated the enslavement of all Virginians. That same month, the Union army enforced the Emancipation Proclamation throughout the state.

On April 8, 1864, the U.S. Senate approved the proposed amendment by the required two-thirds majority and sent it to the House of Representatives. Protracted negotiations in which the president participated eventually convinced two-thirds of the members to vote for the amendment. It passed the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, and went to the states for ratification. No Virginians voted either for or against the Thirteenth Amendment in Congress. The three men who won election to the House of Representatives for the Thirty-Eighth Congress arrived to take their seats after Congress had approved the amendment, but the House refused to seat them. The General Assembly never elected a successor to Senator Lemuel J. Bowden, who died early in January 1864. Senator John S. Carlile, who had represented Virginia since before West Virginia statehood, opposed abolishing slavery but was not present on the day the Senate approved the amendment.

William Henry Seward

Many state legislatures were in session when Congress submitted the proposed amendment to the states, and several of them speedily adopted ratification resolutions. The assembly of the Restored government of Virginia was one of them. On February 8, 1865, the six-member Senate, with one member absent, voted 5 to 0 to ratify the amendment. The following day, February 9, the thirteen-member House of Delegates voted 9 to 2 to ratify the amendment. Both houses adopted resolutions at the time of ratification to allow the absent members to record their votes on the amendment. Both delegates recorded their votes in favor on March 1, but the absent senator did not return for the remainder of the session and during the special session in June of that year did not take advantage of the opportunity to record his vote. It is possible that he did not know about the resolution that permitted him to do so. Secretary of State William H. Seward officially counted Virginia’s ratification as the twelfth of the requisite twenty-seven state legislative ratifications required to make the amendment part of the Constitution as of December 6, 1865.

MAP
TIMELINE
April 8, 1864
The U.S. Senate approves the proposed Thirteenth Amendment, which would abolish slavery.
January 31, 1865
The U.S. House of Representatives approves the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would abolish slavery.
February 8, 1865
The Senate of Virginia of the Restored government votes 5 to 0 to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolishes slavery.
February 9, 1865
The House of Delegates of the Restored government votes 9 to 2 to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolishes slavery. Virginia becomes the twelfth state to ratify the amendment.
December 6, 1865
Georgia becomes the twenty-seventh state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, completing the ratification process.
July 9, 1868
South Carolina becomes the twenty-eighth state to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, completing the ratification process.
October 8, 1869
Both houses of the General Assembly of Virginia ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
February 3, 1870
Iowa becomes the twenty-eighth state to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, completing the ratification process.
FURTHER READING
  • Vorenberg, Michael. Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Tarter, Brent. Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, The. (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/thirteenth-amendment-to-the-u-s-constitution-the.
MLA Citation:
Tarter, Brent. "Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, The" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 07 Dec. 2023
Last updated: 2020, December 07
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