Why Is The 13th Amendment Important

The thirteenth amendment states, “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except under crime, where the subject will be convicted, shall exist within the United States, unless under punishment of crime.”. This means, the United States abolished slavery and people forcing a person to act against their will. Congress also has the power to enforce this amendment. After this amendment was passed slavery was made illegal and the constitution was changed. The first way you amend the constitution, is by 2/3rds of the house and senate agree and vote for the amendment. If that passes it is sent to the states, which must result in 3/4ths of the states agreeing. If that works, it becomes a part of the constitution. Although this is the only way the
They ratified it eight months after the civil war, on December 6, 1865. On January 1st, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the Emancipation Proclamation, which announced all slaves were free. After the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, it changed the war point of view for some people. The Emancipation Proclamation was not followed. Which leads to Abraham Lincoln needing to pass this amendment so slavery would be gone forever. Congress debated over the proposal of this amendment many times. The amendment was passed in April 1864, before the Southern states returned to the union, so the amendment had no issues passing through the Northern states. Why was this amendment important at the time? A lot of people believed slavery was a bad thing, and wanted our country to represent freedom for everyone. Some people didn’t want the color of people’s skin to matter. Some people’s thoughts were as simple as “they believed it was
Alabama”. This court case began on October 20th, 1910 and ended on January 3rd, 1911. Bailey vs. Alabama started in Alabama and was carried to the Supreme Court. Bailey being the defendant, had agreed to work for “Riverside Company” for $12 a month for one year. Bailey continued work for a month, and was given $15 out of convenience, after that he quit. He would not give Riverside Company their money back. He was then charged with a crime. They first took this to the Alabama court, and then brought it to the Supreme Court. They decided to charge him $45, $15 for damages and a $30 fine. If Bailey was not able or didn’t want to pay his fine, he needed to work 20 days of hard labor. The “20 days of hard labor” is included in the 13th amendment. Bailey was charged with a crime, which was what made it okay to charge him with “20 days of hard labor”. This amendment is important to me because I have many friends, that would not live here or could be a slave. For all I know I could believe in something the majority does not and I could be a slave, or my family could be slaves. In my own personal opinion I do not think slavery is fair, it is not right. I also think my faith doesn’t believe in slavery. Slavery is unjust and I believe everyone is