THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT Proposed on February 1, 1865 and declared ratified on December 18, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States formally prohibited the continuation of the institution of slavery. Ac­cording to the terminology of the amendment, "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."