13th+Amendment

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=13th Amendment =

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States"
During the 1860's and the Civil War the big issue was slavery. Then after the Civil war during Lincolns presidential term and his writing of the Emancipation Proclamation, The 13th Amendment was written. In class we read about the events of the Civil War and the events after the war,Reconstruction, and the 13th Amendment. Being as though the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves who lived in states that were in the south under Confederate territory, they had to figure out what to do with the other states, the states in which slavery was not against the law.At the time of its ratification, slavery was legal in the states of Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri. In Jersey, African Americans were held as apprentices which was the equivalent to a slave and held the same severities. So there after, president Abraham Lincoln decided that the only way to answer the question is to create a constitutional amendment officially abolishing slavery. At first, the amendment wasn't taken seriously by the Democratic party and was reintroduced after Lincoln's reelection in 1865. After some convincing, some of the Democrats voted in the amendments favor with two votes to spare. Finally the amendment was passed and this meant that slavery was forever illegal.You are not allowed to own slaves nor force anyone to labor against their will. The 13th Amendment states " 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" Following the events that happened, it would make sense that the 13th Amendment be created. The 13th Amendment still to this day carries out its own legacy because everyone does things not for the most part against their will but as they please. The 13th Amendment is the first amendment of the three amendments. It has many additional legislative proposals to support it such as a joint resolution to the amendment of abolishing slavery, guarantee equality. The 13th amendment is followed by the 14th amendment, which constituted civil rights in the United States, followed by the 15th amendment, which constituted the banning on racial voting restrictions. The 13th amendment is updated by the //Trafficing Victims Protection Act of 2000.// which expands the federal statutes' coverage to cases in which victims are enslaved through psychological and physical force. The 13th amendment also addresses topiscs such as peonage and labor of service. The 13th Amendment matters today because the unfair treatment doen to african americans would still be going on today if it were not for it. If the issues of slavery had never been brought up then the Civil War would have never started and if the civil War had not occurred then the 13th amendment would have never been constituted.


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 * "13th Amendment." __Spartacus Educational__. Ed. John Simkin.
 * "13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress)." __Library of Congress Home__. 22 May 2009. 10 June 2009 [].
 * Danzer, Gerald A. __The Americans__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.