Thirteenth Amendment

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  12/16/2022
  

  Was Emancipation Intended to Perpetuate Slavery by Other Means?

  by Sean Wilentz

  Protests movements have latched on to a misguided interpretation of the Thirteenth Amendment that argues it allowed and even encouraged the system of mass incarceration as an extension of slavery. A new global history extends that critique to the age of emancipation in general.

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• 7/18/2021
  

  The 1906 Decision in Hodges v. United States Shows the Error of Leaving Fundamental Rights to the States

  by William H. Pruden III

  The Court ruled that the 13th Amendment did not create a federal right to fairly contracted labor, and called for Black workers to "take their chances with other citizens in the states where they should make their homes," despite the plain determination of those citizens to oppress and expolit them.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/25/2021
  

  The Emancipation Proclamation did not End Slavery. Here’s what Did

  by Clarence Lusane

  Chattel slavery was ended by the enactment of the 13th Amendment. Whatever the merits of recognizing the Juneteenth holiday, it commemorates the specific emancipation of enslaved Texans, and not national abolition. 

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• SOURCE: Forbes
  12-6-15
  

  Lincoln's Struggle With The Thirteenth Amendment

  by Christian Samito

  Amending the Constitution broke with Lincoln’s long-held belief that it should not be altered because the work of its Framers could not be improved.