One Hundred And Forty Years Ago Today, Slavery Was Abolished (More Or Less)

On December 18, 1865, after three-quarters of the states had finally ratified it, the 13th Amendment was adopted into the U.S. Constitution, saying that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

President Lincolin and other members of the anti-slavery Republican Party did not even try to abolish slavery--they just wanted to stop its extension into new states in the West.

Even this was unacceptable to Southern politicians, who believed the free states would turn against them. After Lincoln's election in November1860, many souther states seceded from the U.S., and just after Lincoln's inauguration in, the Civil War began.
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