December 18: Today is the anniversary of the adoption of the Thirteen Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865, prohibiting slavery in the United States territories.

The Thirteenth Amendment United States Constitution ("Amendment XIII ') officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery in the United States, and, with limited exceptions (such as those convicted of a crime) banned involuntary servitude.

At the time of its ratification, slavery remained legal only in Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland and New Jersey.

In the rest of the United States slaves they had been freed by state action and the "Emancipation Proclamation" of the federal government.

Abraham Lincoln (who had issued the Proclamation) and others were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation was seen as a temporary measure only during the American Civil War, and therefore also of the liberation of slaves in those states where slavery it was still legal, supported the amendment as a means of ensuring the permanent abolition of slavery.

These images depict African Americans who joined the North side of the Civil War. What a lot of people do not know is while the war was raging in 1861, before the 13th Amendment was passed, when slaves escaped their Southern masters, a lot of white men in the North would return the slaves to the South, back to their masters for a sum of money. When slaves were returned their masters would usually beat them and usually kill them. However sometimes an escaped slave would have the option to either join in the fight for the North, or be returned to their masters. These Aftrican Americans, some which volunteered, were seen as expendable soldiers, someone to do the dirty work. In a sence they traded one kind of slavery for the next.