Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Thirteenth Amendment
Presents the Thirteenth Amendment - Slavery and Involuntary Servitude, which abolished slavery and forced servitude in the United States. Includes four annotations to the Amendment.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Debate About Slavery
Article outlines the issues of debate over slavery and the compromises made while writing the Constitution.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Thirteenth Amendment
This source provides the Thirteenth Amendment as it is worded in the U.S. Constitution. At the bottom of the page are annotations with links to information about the abolition of slavery, origin and purpose of the amendment, peonage, and...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Petition From the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery
A learning module that begins with "Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery" by Benjamin Franklin, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be...
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery and the Slave Trade [Pdf]
Read reconstructions of debates by delegates to the Constitutional Convention as they attempted to come to terms with slavery, the slave trade, and how to address the issue in the Constitution so all states would be willing to ratify it....
National Constitution Center
National Constitution Center: Thirteenth Amendment [Pdf]
Primary source document, informational text and questions for discussion included for students studying issues surrounding the abolition of slavery and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
US National Archives
Nara: Charters of Freedom: End of Slavery in the United States: 13th Amendment
Online exhibit of primary source documents related to the 13th Amendment after the Civil War and the end to slavery.
Digital History
Digital History: The Constitution and Slavery
The issue of slavery was a contentious one during debates in the Constitutional Convention. Read about the various issues, the quotes of several of the delegates, and see how the word "slave" is not even mentioned in the Constitution....
Other
The Constitution of the State of Nevada
The complete text of the Nevada Constitution. The Nevada constitution of July 4, 1864 forbid slavery and allowed for President Lincoln to proclaim that the State of Nevada was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: A House Divided: Slavery and the Civil War [Pdf]
In this lesson, 8th graders look at how slavery contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War, at Abraham Lincoln's efforts to save the Union, and at what impact the Emancipation Proclamation had on the North's view of the war. Includes...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: The Constitution and Slavery
Article and questions for discussion on the controveries surrounding slavery while writing the U.S. Constitution and forming a new U.S. government.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Slavery and the u.s. Constitution
Lesson focuses on the debate over slavery at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Columbia University
Columbia University: Columbia University & Slavery 5. King's, the Revolution
This website was created by faculty, students, and staff to publicly present information about Columbia's historical connections to the institution of slavery. This article focuses on King's College, soon to be Columbia College, in the...
US National Archives
Our Documents: 13th Amendment to the u.s. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery
Take a look at an image of the constitutional amendment that put an end to slavery in the United States. Interactive image is accompanied by an overview of the amendment's inception and adoption, as well as document transcript.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Moving Toward Equality Under Law
As new free and slave states were admitted to the Union prior to the Civil War, political divisions kept growing, despite attempts to balance the numbers of each. The South pushed for slavery to expand westward, while anti-slavery...
Digital History
Digital History: Writing a Constitution [Pdf]
This site is from a unit called 'Writing the US Constitution.' It looks at the documents that preceded the Constitution, and the major issues that were debated while the Constitution was being created.
Other
Karpeles: Emancipation Proclamation Amendment to the Constitution
A copy and transcription of the 13th Amendment which ended slavery. The sidebar gives a brief overview of emancipation and what led to this amendment.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Constitution Through Compromise
Read about how compromises were reached at the Philadelphia convention that dealt with issues between large and small states, and slave and free states. Take the quick quiz to assess knowledge about the writing of the Constitution.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: The Slave Trade
Article and questions for discussion on the slave trade. Students read about how Europeans captured, transported, and sold African men, women and children into slavery.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: u.s. Constitution and the Idea of Compromise (Lesson Plan)
In this lesson, examine many of the opposing viewpoints held by founding fathers as they considered various compromises that made the U.S. Constitution possible, including the three-fifths compromise made to placate slave-owning states.
US Government Publishing Office
U.s. Government Publishing Office: Thirteenth Amendment [Pdf]
Complete text of the thirteenth amendment of the United States Constitution.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Slavery, Civil War, and Democracy: What Did Lincoln Believe?
Activity in which students examine the concept of democracy and the idea of a "just society" through the eyes of Abraham Lincoln. Lesson includes questions for discussion and activity in which students prepare a speech on the what they...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: A Nation Conceived in Liberty [Pdf]
In this lesson, 11th graders examine the events and political philosophy that laid the foundations of the American government, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They also look at what role religion played in shaping American...
US Department of State
Bureau of International Information Programs: History Outline: Sectionalism
Article reviews several conditions of American society that sowed the seeds of civil war, particularly slavery and sectional conflict.