13th+Amendment+(Lawrence)

13th Amendment  The 13th Amendment is a law passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery as a legal binstitution. At the time of its ratification, slavery remained legal only in Delaware, Kentucky , and Missouri. In New Jersey, former slaves born before 1804 could still legally be held as "apprentices," a condition essentially equivalent to slavery; former border slave state Maryland had banned slavery in the constitution it had passed the previous year. Everywhere else in the United States slaves had been freed by state action or Abraham Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln and others were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be seen as a temporary war measure, and so, besides freeing slaves in those states where slavery was still legal, they supported the Amendment as a means to guarantee the permanent abolition of slavery. (wikipedia.org) In American studies we have studied all kinds of slavery, which lead up to the 13th amendment but mostly slavery in the south. The 13th amendment fits into the larger “American story” because of slavery in the earlier 1800sand earlier. This law has continued today, there is still no longer slavery in America at all. With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in December 1865, slavery was officially abolished in all areas of the United States. The Reconstruction era was under way in the South, the period during which the 11 Confederate states would be gradually reintroduced to the Union. In the meantime, Norhern armies continued to occupy the South and to enforce the decrees of Congress. (www.history.rocher) In many parts of the South, the newly freed slaves labored under conditions similar to those existing before the war. The Union army could offer only limited protection to the ex-slaves, and Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, clearly had no interest in ensuring the freedom of southern blacks. The new president's appointments as governors of sourthern states formed conservative, proslavery governments. The new state legislatures passed laws designed to keep blacks in poverty and in positions of servitude. Under these so-called black codes, ex-slaves who had no steady employment could be arrested and ordered to pay stiff fines. Prisoners who could not pay the sum were hired out as virtual slaves. In some areas, black children could be forced to serve as apprentices in local industries. Blacks were also prevented from buying land and were denied fair wages for their work. At a meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in May 1865, a month after the Civil War, William Lloyd Garrison called the organization to disband, now that its goal was achieved. Douglass came out against Garrison, saying that "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot." The society voted to continue the struggle for black rights, but many abolitionists left the movement. Abolitionists were not the only ones interested in giving blacks the right to vote. The Republican party didn't want democrats to get power in the South. Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, a group of radical Republicans joined with abolitionists in a campaign for voting rights for black men who that they thought would support the Republicans. During the later part of 1865, Douglass went North to speak out for black suffrage and warning the country that the former slaveholders were regaining control of the South. In February 1866,Douglass met with Johnson to impress upon him the need for changes in the southern state governments. The president did most of the talking, and he told the delegation that he intended to support the interests of southern whites and to block voting rights for blacks which led to the 15th amendment. Douglass and the supporters continued to battle for black rights with some success. The public mood gradually turned against Johnson and his attempts to install governments in the South that were controlled by Confederate loyalists. The Republican-controlled Congress became increasingly resistant to Johnson's plans for a limited reconstruction of the southern states. The radical Republicans wanted to see sweeping changes enforced that would end the former slaveholders power in the South. Thaddeus Stevens urged that the estates of the large slaveholders be broken up and the land distributed to ex-slaves, or freedmen. ([])

bibliography wikipedia.org/ www.history.roichester.edu www.law.connel.com www.13amendment.com