ARTICLE XIII.
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.
1. 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.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This amendment, one of the "first fruits" of the Civil War, put an end to slavery in the United States. The wording was taken, almost verbatim, from the Ordinance of 1787.