Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery except as punishment for crime

The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified on December 6, 1865, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. The amendment gives Congress power to enforce abolition through legislation.\n\nThe amendment destroys the formal legal foundation of chattel slavery, but its punishment clause becomes central to later debates about convict leasing, prison labor, and racialized criminal punishment.\n\nThe event is one of the most important constitutional turning points in the history of racism because it ends legal slavery while leaving unresolved how freedom will be enforced.