This Day in History: <br />Slavery Is Abolished in America December 18, 1865 The 13th Amendment was formally <br />adopted into the U.S. Constitution. It ensures that “neither <br />slavery nor involuntary <br />servitude … shall exist within the United <br />States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” It had been approved <br />in the Republican-led <br />Senate in April of 1864. But the amendment had been <br />bogged down in the Democratic-led <br />House of Representatives for almost a year. On December 2, 1865, <br />Alabama became the 27th state <br />to ratify the 13th Amendment. The former confederate state's <br />vote provided the requisite three-fourths <br />majority of states’ approval needed <br />to make the 13th amendment the law of the land.
