The Thirteenth Amendment, the first of three constitutional amendments to be implemented following the Civil War, states that “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.” And that “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” This historic amendment put an end to slavery, at least legally, in the United States. The photograph here is a photographic montage of the lawmakers who voted aye for the Thirteenth Amendment, designed by George M. Powell.

The photographs of the Representatives and Senators are ordered in such a way that the image of Speaker Colfax is in the center and the images uncoil outwardly until it reaches the image of Senator Dolittle, at the top, to the left of Vice President Hamlin. The Senators appear around the outside with the Representatives arranged in the center.

In order to end slavery, Constitutional reform would have been unavoidable in Reconstruction-era America. Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation of 1863 had gone some way to begin the abolition of slavery, but amid concerns that the proclamation would not be sufficient to stand after the war, the Thirteenth Amendment sought to cement this decree in post-Civil War America.

A bill proposing an amendment to abolish slavery was introduced in December 1863 and in February 1864 a constitutional amendment was submitted outlining the sentiment that would eventually become the Thirteenth Amendment. This stated that “All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave; and the Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this declaration into effect everywhere in the United States.”

The Senate passed this on April 8, 1864. However, there was a further struggle to have the Amendment passed by the House.

Eventually, in a vote called on January 31 1865 the Amendment was finally passed, having reached the two-thirds majority required. President Lincoln signed the Amendment, even though there is no legal requirement for the President to do so, and it remains the only Amendment to be signed by a President.

The Amendment was submitted to the states on 1 February 1865 and was taken up by several states straight away. On December 18, 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment had been ratified by enough States to become valid and officially became part of the Constitution. Interestingly, due to a clerical oversight, Mississippi did not ratify the Amendment until 1995 and it was not officially certified until 2013.

Although the Amendment changed the constitutional and legal rights of African Americans, it, of course, was not an immediate solution to the cultural attitudes towards slavery and the newly freed slaves. Since the 1860s, race relations have remained strained within certain sections of American society throughout the Civil Rights movement and even to the present day. However, the Thirteenth Amendment allowed emancipated slaves to remain as such and liberated millions of others from slavery. It forced abolition to be constitutionally protected and ensured that it would never again be legally possible for individuals to be owned like commodities in the United States.

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