Section 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 their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States
was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the
Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 31st day of January, 1865, and was
declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the
18th of December, 1865, to have been ratified by the legislatures
of twenty-seven of the thirty-six States. The dates of
ratification were: Illinois, February 1, 1865; Rhode Island,
February 2, 1865; Michigan, February 2, 1865; Maryland, February
3, 1865; New York, February 3, 1865; Pennsylvania, February 3,
1865; West Virginia, February 3, 1865; Missouri, February 6,
1865; Maine, February 7, 1865; Kansas, February 7, 1865;
Massachusetts, February 7, 1865; Virginia, February 9, 1865;
Ohio, February 10, 1865; Indiana, February 13, 1865; Nevada,
February 16, 1865; Louisiana, February 17, 1865; Minnesota,
February 23, 1865; Wisconsin, February 24, 1865; Vermont, March
9, 1865; Tennessee, April 7, 1865; Arkansas, April 14, 1865;
Connecticut, May 4, 1865; New Hampshire, July 1, 1865; South
Carolina, November 13, 1865; Alabama, December 2, 1865; North
Carolina, December 4, 1865; Georgia, December 6, 1865.
Ratification was completed on December 6, 1865.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Oregon, December 8,
1865; California, December 19, 1865; Florida, December 28, 1865
(Florida again ratified on June 9, 1868, upon its adoption of a
new constitution); Iowa, January 15, 1866; New Jersey, January
23, 1866 (after having rejected the amendment on March 16, 1865);
Texas, February 18, 1870; Delaware, February 12, 1901 (after
having rejected the amendment on February 8, 1865); Kentucky,
March 18, 1976 (after having rejected it on February 24, 1865).
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by
Mississippi, December 4, 1865.
