Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Why might some Americans have voted for the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865? Why might some have voted against it?
• 2. President Lincoln regarded the Thirteenth Amendment as a “king's cure-all for all the evils” of slavery, but following his death Congress passed two more amendments in an attempt to complete the work of ensuring freedom and equality for freedmen. Compare and contrast the Thirteenth Amendment with the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment. Which do you think did the most to advance civil rights, and why do you think so?
• 3. Historians continue to argue about who should receive the most credit for ending slavery: President Lincoln, Congress, the army, or the slaves themselves. Which of these parties do you think played the most crucial role in this process, and why do you think so?
• 4. The great African American historian and political activist W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in his 1935 book Black Reconstruction in America that “slavery was not abolished even after the Thirteenth Amendment” (p. 188). To what extent and in what ways was this true? How was this possible, once the amendment had become law? What does this suggest about the power of the Constitution?