The 13th Amendment

The 13th Amendment was established on December 6th 1865.  This amendment made it illegal to own slaves.  This was one of the largest amendments considering the excessive amount of slavery in the U.S. especially the South.  From 1865 till today it has been illegal to force someone to work for you even if there is compensation  involved.

The 13th amendment was the 1st amendment that protected blacks in the American constitution.   Abraham Lincoln was the president at the time and just witnessed the civil war which earned blacks the right to live as free people.  The Civil War and was really the major player in declaring America a “free country.”  Soon after the 13th amendment came the 14th and 15th amendments that once again protected blacks.  The 14th amendment allowed blacks to declare themselves as citizens, and the 15th amendment declared that no citizen shall be denired the right to vote regardless of their race, or ethnicity.

In our modern generation people are becoming more and more accepting of others despite their color, and it all started by the prestigious 13th amendment.

2 thoughts on “The 13th Amendment

  1. The establishment of the 13th amendment was a landmark event in American history. It did away an atrocity(slavery) that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

  2. This primary document is very important in establishing a point in American history where amendments to the constitution gave African Americans the rights they had been deprived of for very long. It also influenced many strides in later fights for civil rights, which have been a continuous struggle in the United States. I think it is most important to include the 14th and 15th amendments which followed as primary sources, to understand the direction history took during the reconstruction era.

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