13Th Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment was undoubtedly one of the most significant revisions to the United States Constitution. Research papers on the Thirteenth Amendment cover the history of the amendment and its place in the United States citizenship law.

1. It was the cumulating event of our own civil strife
2. The 13th Amendment laid the course for the reconstruction
3. The 13th Amendment set into motion other momentous changes. The Thirteenth Amendment is the legislation that once and for all made the slave trade illegal in the Unites States of America. It was the beginning of a new era in our country's history.

The Thirteenth Amendment paved the way for the Fourteenth Amendment, which would give all persons born or naturalized in the United States citizenship within both their country and state. This in turn led to the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave African American's the right to vote. It could even be said that this course of events precipitated the coming of women's suffrage as well. All of these actions were set into motion by the Thirteenth Amendment, which had in turn been sparked by the circumstances of the Civil War. This amendment, as one would expect, was extremely controversial in its time. Residual arguments from the battlefield continued to ricochet from the podium and through the press, all over the fragile country.

Although it has been thoroughly scrutinized by many interest groups, the Thirteenth Amendment's purpose was clear to the persons who framed its carefully chosen words. In their eyes the Thirteenth Amendment was drafted to ensure that the natural rights of all persons were protected. The original intent of this Amendment was to remand to federal courts the jurisdiction over civil rights issues. It was the view of amendment's founders that the federal government, from that time forward, should be the authority over civil rights.

In a majority of states the split during combat of the Civil War, and later the battle of the Thirteenth Amendment, was straightforward.

• Southern States were slave states and their citizens routinely believed that it should remain an issue decided on a state level. Southern supporters included:
  • Virginia
  • Mississippi
  • Georgia
  • South Carolina
  • Alabama
• Northern States were Free states that did not believe that individual freedoms should be left up to the states, but enforced on a national level. Among the staunch Northern states were:
  • Pennsylvania
  • New York
  • Rhode Island
  • Massachusetts
  • Maryland
  • West Virginia

For some states, however, the picture was not so clear. Ohio was one of those states.