Proposal and Ratification
The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed
to the legislatures of the several States by the Thirty-eighth Congress, on
the 31st day of January, 1865, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary
of State, dated the 18th of December, 1865, to have been ratified by the legislatures
of twenty-seven of the thirty-six States. The dates of ratification were: Illinois,
February 1, 1865; Rhode Island, February 2, 1865; Michigan, February 2, 1865;
Maryland, February 3, 1865; New York, February 3, 1865; Pennsylvania, February
3, 1865; West Virginia, February 3, 1865; Missouri, February 6, 1865; Maine,
February 7, 1865; Kansas, February 7, 1865; Massachusetts, February 7, 1865;
Virginia, February 9, 1865; Ohio, February 10, 1865; Indiana, February 13, 1865;
Nevada, February 16, 1865; Louisiana, February 17, 1865; Minnesota, February
23, 1865; Wisconsin, February 24, 1865; Vermont, March 9, 1865; Tennessee, April
7, 1865; Arkansas, April 14, 1865; Connecticut, May 4, 1865; New Hampshire,
July 1, 1865; South Carolina, November 13, 1865; Alabama, December 2, 1865;
North Carolina, December 4, 1865; Georgia, December 6, 1865.
Ratification was completed on December 6, 1865.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Oregon, December 8, 1865; California,
December 19, 1865; Florida, December 28, 1865 (Florida again ratified on June
9, 1868, upon its adoption of a new constitution); Iowa, January 15, 1866; New
Jersey, January 23, 1866 (after having rejected the amendment on March 16, 1865);
Texas, February 18, 1870; Delaware, February 12, 1901 (after having rejected
the amendment on February 8, 1865); Kentucky, March 18, 1976 (after having rejected
it on February 24, 1865).
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Mississippi, December
4, 1865.