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After the Civil War
(1865-1870)

The Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 5 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.94

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    illegal, ratify, slavery, presented, ending, equally, during, vote, goal, fact, longer, country, several, fear, pass, achieve
     content words:    Thirteenth Amendment, Civil War, President Lincoln, In Kentucky

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The Thirteenth Amendment
By Cathy Pearl 		  
1     The Thirteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1865. It was the first to be added to the Constitution in more than sixty years. Other amendments had been presented to states during this time. But not enough states had agreed to them.
 
2     It would make slavery illegal in all of the country. At first, the Civil War was fought to save the Union. Later, ending slavery was also the goal. This new amendment would achieve this.
 
3     The Senate argued over it. They passed it in April of 1864. The vote was 38 to 6. The House did not pass it at first. President Lincoln worked hard to get people to vote for it. He made it an issue during elections. Finally, in January 1865, they did. The vote there was 119 to 56.
 
4     It was presented to the states on January 31, 1865. The Civil War was not over yet. Slaves in some states had been freed during the war by Lincoln. Other states were getting rid of slavery on their own. Slavery was still allowed only in Delaware and Kentucky by December 1865.
 
5     There were thirty-six states in the country at the time. Three-fourths of the states needed to approve this. That meant that twenty-seven states would need to agree to it.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
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