At the end of the Civil War, was slavery completely abolished in the US?
Slavery in the United States was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, which was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified as of December 6, 1865.
AMENDMENT XIII
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.
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.
Courtesy National Archives.
Some people argue over what “slavery” is. In context, it clearly meant chattel slavery of persons of African descent, a point made by the Supreme Court in Butler v. Perry, 1916, in which it ruled that states and localities could continue the ancient practice of requiring able-bodied men to get out and work on the roads:
“This (Thirteenth) Amendment was adopted with reference to conditions existing since the foundation of our government, and the term ‘involuntary servitude’ was intended to cover those forms of compulsory labor akin to African slavery which, in practical operation, would tend to produce like undesirable results. It introduced no novel doctrine with respect of services always treated as exceptional, and certainly was not intended to interdict enforcement of those duties which individuals owe to the state, such as services in the army, militia, on the jury, etc. The great purpose in view was liberty under the protection of effective government, not the destruction of the latter by depriving it of essential powers.”
Of course, drafting men to work on the roads has definitely fallen out of favor these days, but a citizen can still be called to jury duty or even drafted into the army if necessary, and none of that is slavery or involuntary servitude. Nor is it being made to work while imprisoned. You can argue about prison labor, but whatever it is, it isn’t slavery.