Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and approved by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865, the 13th Amendment would be ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. It abolished slavery in the United States and provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”