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January 1865 |
Slavery Abolished in Missouri:
On January 11, a state constitutional convention
approved a new constitution that abolished slavery
immediately in the Border State of Missouri.
Thirteenth Amendment Approved by
the House:
On January 31, the U.S. House passed the
proposed Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery
in the entire United States, by a vote of 119-56, two
votes over the constitutionally required two-thirds
majority. Although not constitutionally necessary,
President Lincoln expressed his approval by signing the
Thirteenth Amendment before it was sent to the states
for ratification. |
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February 1865 |
Thirteenth Amendment Ratification Process:
Eighteen states ratified the proposed Thirteenth
Amendment: February 1, Illinois; February 2,
Rhode Island and Michigan; February 3, Maryland, New
York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; February 6,
Missouri; February 7, Kansas, Maine, and Massachusetts;
February 9, Virginia; February 10, Ohio; February 13,
Indiana; February 16, Nevada; February 17, Louisiana;
February 23, Minnesota; and February 24, Wisconsin.
Slavery Abolished in Tennessee:
On February 22, voters in the former Confederate state
of Tennessee (then under Union control) overwhelmingly
approved a new state constitution that abolished slavery
immediately in the state. |
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March 1865
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Thirteenth Amendment Ratification Process:
On March 9, Vermont became the nineteenth state to
ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. |
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April 1865 |
End of the Civil War:
On April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House in Virginia, formally ending the
American Civil War.
Lincoln Assassinated:
On April 14, Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth
fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln, who died the
next morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson, a War
Democrat from Tennessee, was sworn in as the seventeenth
president of the United States.
Thirteenth Amendment
Ratification Process:
On April 7 and 14, Tennessee and Arkansas became
the twenty and twenty-first states, respectively, to
ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. |
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May 1865 |
Thirteenth Amendment
Ratification Process:
On May 4, Connecticut became the twenty-second
state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. |
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June 1865 |
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
As part of his Reconstruction plan, President Andrew
Johnson instructed the former Confederate states to
ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. |
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July 1865 |
Thirteenth Amendment Ratification Process:
On July 1, New Hampshire became the twenty-third
state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.
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November 1865 |
Thirteenth Amendment Ratification Process:
On November 13, South Carolina became the
twenty-fourth state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. |
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December 1865 |
Thirteenth Amendment Ratified:
On December 2, 4, and 6, Alabama, North Carolina, and
Georgia, respectively, became the twenty-fifth,
twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh states to ratify the
Thirteenth Amendment. With the approval by Georgia, the
measure had achieved the constitutionally required
ratification by three-quarters of the states (27 of
36). On December 18, Secretary of State William Henry
Seward declared the Thirteenth Amendment officially
ratified and part of the United States Constitution. |
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Introduction - John Adler, HarpWeek Publisher...
Slavery and the Secession Crisis
