![famu-8322 A headshot of an African American child wearing 19th-century style clothing.](https://familyvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/famu-8322.jpg)
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865 in the aftermath of the Civil War, abolished slavery in the United States. The 13th Amendment 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.”