Amendment XIII (13)

Amendment XIII
Ratified December 6, 1865

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.

     The 13th amendment freed the slaves and eliminated slavery or any other kind of forced or involuntary slavery forever. This amendment stated that slavery is illegal and people have to start paying for services like such. There are some exceptions though: labor of convicted criminals, military service for those drafted, and jury duty. This was more of a North v. South kind of thing. The abolitionists (the North) didn't want the south to have slaves that they didn't have. Some may ask: Are the slaves really free? There were factories in the north where the living conditions were poor and most had to live in slums. They also received the wages that a slave would receive. Freedom was just a word. There was and is still more work to be done. The 13th amendment doesn't give these former slaves rights.


    

     I chose this image because Abraham Lincoln played a huge role in the passing of the thirteenth amendment, which freed the slaves. He helped to craft the amendment by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation as well as a "Proclamation for Amnesty and Reconstruction".


     I like this picture as representation of the thirteenth amendment because it shows that the blacks have been freed from slavery. I like that it depicts that there is a white hand as well as a black hand showing that the blacks are free from those white slave owners.