The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as a punishment for a crime where the person has been duly convicted. It 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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The amendment also grants Congress the power to enforce this article through appropriate legislation

. This amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified later that year, marking the formal constitutional end to slavery in the U.S. It followed President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which declared freedom for slaves in Confederate states but did not abolish slavery nationwide. The 13th Amendment provided a permanent legal solution to slavery, overriding previous constitutional provisions that had implicitly allowed it

. The 13th Amendment is one of the three Reconstruction Amendments that expanded civil rights after the Civil War, alongside the 14th and 15th Amendments