by Stan Dyer

Created on: January 08, 2010   Last Updated: January 10, 2010

For those who do not know, the 13th Amendment is that amendment to the Constitution intended to abolish slavery. The problem with this, and other laws is that people seem to believe that the simple act of writing a law will remedy anything and everything, even though history proves otherwise. 

We have laws against murder, but that has not stopped senseless killing. We have laws against stealing, but the thievery continues. We have laws that guide us through traffic, but not even those can slow the procession through the court system. 

The laws against slavery, too, were just as ineffective against that which they sought to eliminate. The truth is, we can change the law, but we cannot change the hearts and minds of men. 

Before the 13th Amendment, there was the Emancipation Proclamation.  Issued to be effective January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation supposedly freed the slaves. Yet, if you take the time to read that document, you will discover that it specifically excludes slaves living in non-rebellious parts of the country from the emancipation. 

Included in that tally are the four border slave states that did not secede, slaves living in areas of the South controlled by the Union, all slaves living in the Northern States, and all slaves living in the Western Territories. 

Additionally, the Proclamation made no provisions for informing the slaves, (most of whom could not read), of their freedom, or assisting them in transitioning their lives from servitude to self-reliance. For many who owned nothing and possessed no other skills than those they learned on the plantation, life after emancipation was pretty much the same as it was before, if not worse. The 13th Amendment did little to remedy that situation. 

Since the Emancipation Proclamation was primarily a "fit and necessary war measure" meant to cripple the Southern war effort, the 13th Amendment was written not only to completely legitimize the emancipation, but also to include all those slaves who were left out of the previous document. 

The 13th Amendment, however, also contained the clause that allowed for the use of convicts as slaves, and directly led to the creation of Chain Gangs.  And, as previously mentioned, since most former slaves had little means of support, it was not difficult for them to be rounded up for such crimes as vagrancy, or loitering, and put to work on Chain gangs, hence, "re-enslaved." 

Although

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