' A Monthly Publication of the Nashville Bar Association From the President Charles K. Grant, Publisher William T. Ramsey, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected] Musings on the Thirteenth Amendment Eleanor Wetzel, Managing Editor by:
[email protected] Charles K. Grant Journal Staff: Nikki Gray, Director of Communications
[email protected] This year marks the 150th anniversary of the passing in the Senate of the resolution Tina Ashford, Communications Coordinator that would ultimately become the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which
[email protected] forever abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States. The measure Editorial Committee: was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, Kelly L. Frey and adopted on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State Wil- Kathleen Pohlid liam H. Seward proclaimed its adoption after the requisite three-fourths of the states Tim Ishii ratified it. The Amendment states: Tracy Kane Everette Parrish Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for Bill Ramsey crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within Rita Roberts-Turner the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Eleanor Wetzel David Winters Over four million slaves were freed by its passage. Victoria Webb Nashville Bar Association Staff Until the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery had been protected in the original Constitu- tion through clauses such as the Three-Fifths Clause, by which three-fifths of the slave Gigi Woodruff Executive Director population was counted for representation in the House of Representatives, and the ----------- Fugitive Slave Clause, which required slaves who fled to another state to be returned Tina R.