On this day, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was officially ratified, formally abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for a crime) across the United States.
Though President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it only freed enslaved people in Confederate states. The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal nationwide, marking a historic step in the long struggle for Black freedom and civil rights in America.
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