13th Amendment Ratified

People

Abraham Lincoln

On December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, officially abolishing slavery throughout the nation. The 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." While this amendment freed approximately four million enslaved people, its exception clause, which permits involuntary servitude "as a punishment for crime," created a loophole that Southern states immediately exploited to maintain control over Black labor. Within months of ratification, Southern states passed "Black Codes," laws that explicitly targeted newly freed Black people for minor and fabricated offenses. Vagrancy statutes made it a crime to be unemployed, requiring Black people to carry proof of employment or face arrest. "Pig laws" made stealing a farm animal worth one dollar punishable by up to five years in prison. These laws were designed to funnel Black Americans into the criminal justice system, where they could legally be subjected to forced labor under the 13th Amendment's exception. The convict leasing system that emerged allowed states to lease prisoners, who were overwhelmingly Black, to private companies, railroads, mines, and plantations. By 1898, convict leasing accounted for 73% of Alabama's state revenue. Conditions were brutal, and countless prisoners died from abuse, disease, and dangerous working conditions. The legacy of the 13th Amendment's exception clause extends to modern mass incarceration. The United States, with 5% of the world's population, holds 25% of the world's prisoners. Black Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white Americans, and one in three Black men will be imprisoned in their lifetime compared to one in seventeen white men. Prison labor continues today, with incarcerated people earning pennies per hour while generating an estimated $2 billion annually in goods and services. Ava DuVernay's 2016 documentary "13th" brought renewed attention to this history. Since 2018, eight states have voted to remove the criminal exception from their state constitutions, and in 2023, federal legislation was proposed to amend the 13th Amendment itself.