What ended slavery in the US?

Answer 1

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the Emancipation Proclamation in two parts. The first, on September 22, 1862 said that slaves in states in rebellion would be freed unless the states returned to the Union by January 1, 1863. It had no immediate effect, since slaves in Union states weren't freed and the Union had no control over Confederate states. The second part, issued on January 1, 1863, named the states still in rebellion to whom the proclamation applied. The listed areas and exceptions were:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Johns, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina, and Virginia, (except the fortyeight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth-City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

Although it had no immediate effect other than to get some border states and part of Virginia (which became West Virginia) to proclaim loyalty to the Union so that they could keep their slaves, slaves were freed in areas conquered by the Union army. In each place conquered, the army announced to slaves that they had been freed due to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Fighting continued until Spring of 1865, when the last battles of the Civil War took place. When General McClellan landed his forces at Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, the announcement that the slaves had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation was made for the last time, two years and five months after the proclamation's effective date. This is the origin of the Juneteenth celebration. Of course news of the Emancipation Proclamation had preceded this by quite some time, and most slaves had known about it but been unable, due to circumstances to take advantage of it, being held in Confederate states.

At this time slavery was still legal in the United States. On January 31, 1865 Congress had passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America proposing that slavery and involuntary servitude be illegal except as punishment for crime.

At the time of the amendment there were thirty-six states, so for the required three/fourths majority they needed twenty-seven states to ratify the amendment. This happened on December 6, 1865, when Georgia was the twenty-seventh state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, finally ending slavery in the United States of America.

Eventually all the rest of the thirty-six states of that time ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. Notable late-comers were Kentucky who ratified on March 18, 1976, and Mississippi who made it unanimous when the state ratified on March 16, 1995, one hundred thirty years after the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The fourteen states which joined the United States subsequently, inherited the Constitution as it existed on the date of statehood, and didn't get to ratify amendments which preceded their entry into the Union.

Answer 2

Congress ended slavery in the re-united states of America, a few months after the end of the Civil War.

The war had not started as an Abolitionist crusade, but Lincoln turned it into one, for strictly tactical reasons, to keep the British and French from supporting the South. (It would have made them look pro-slavery themselves.)

By the end of the war, there would have been no question of returning the ex-slaves to their ex-masters - especially after so many of them had seen service in the Union armies.

The war itself had killed slavery.

Answer 3

The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. It was ratified by 3/4 of the states on December 6, 1865.

Answer 4

possible the emancipation proclamation

Answer 5

willliam willberforce

Answer 6

Abe Lincoln

Answer 7

Justin b.