The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in the U.S., was passed by the House of Representatives on this day in 1865. A little over two years earlier, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed all of the slaves in the Confederate states rebelling against the U.S. — but that left a lot of confusion about border states that had stayed in the Union or been recaptured. Lincoln's Republican party had swept Congress the in 1864, paving the way for the passage of an amendment settling the issue through the total abolition of slavery.
Within a month of the House's passage of the 13th Amendment, 18 of 27 states ratified it. But once Lincoln was assassinated, things slowed down. The amendment finally became law in December 1865, when Georgia ratified it.
You can learn more about the 13th Amendment at History.com.
