Washington D.C. (WHTM) On January 31, 1865, the U.S. Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which ended ...

Support your local PBS station in our mission to inspire, enrich, and educate.

Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment nearly 154 years ago — Jan. 31, 1865 to be exact — by a vote of 119-56. The Civil War would end later that year, but President Abraham Lincoln, compelled by ...

“The American Civil War has an official end date, and that end date is August 1866,” Vorenberg said. Notably, the official end date comes “16 months after the end date that we typically assume, which ...

1790: Virginia's slave population was over 292,000. Free Blacks numbered about 11,000. 1863-70: Emancipation Proclamation (1863), 13th Amendment abolished slavery (1865), 14th Amendment granted ...