Photograph of one of the first versions of the 13th Amendment
Back in the early 1860s, when slave-holding states began withdrawing from the federal government, House formed a committee of 33 people under Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio to come up with a proposition to show the President to solve this issue, which they called the Corwin Amendment. “A proposed Thirteenth Amendment to prevent secession, 1861” published by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History expresses that,“Without using the words ‘slavery’ or ‘slave,’ the proposed amendment would deny ‘to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State’.” It was the first form of the Thirteenth Amendment proposed. From all 50 states, only Ohio and Maryland accepted it, which backtracked the motion to end slavery.
After a few revisions and forms were made, the Thirteenth Amendment that is still here today was proposed. This version was proposed by Representatives Charles Summer, Lyman Trumbull, and John Henderson. On April 8, 1864, it was approved by Senate, and on January 31, 1865, it was approved by House; it was ratified by all states on December 6, 1865.
Depiction of the celebration that erupted after the 13th Amendment was passed by the House of Representatives.
Image representing when the states ratified the 13th Amendment