On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
officially ending the institution of slavery, was ratified. “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.” With these words, the single
greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the
Constitution.

The ratification came eight months after the end of the war, but it
represented the culmination of the struggle against slavery.