How are the 13th and 14th Amendments related to each other?

The Fourteenth Amendment was actually passed to make the intent of the Thirteenth Amendment clearer and enable Congress to prevent discrimination against former slaves. read more

The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished, and continues to prohibit, slavery, and, with limited exceptions, prohibits involuntary servitude. Prior to its ratification, slavery remained legal only in Delaware and Kentucky, everywhere else; the slaves had been freed by state action and the federal government's Emancipation Proclamation executive order. read more

The Reconstruction amendments were important in implementing the Reconstruction of the American South after the war. Their proponents saw them as transforming the United States from a country that was (in Abraham Lincoln's words) "half slave and half free" to one in which the constitutionally guaranteed "blessings of liberty" would be extended to the entire populace, including the former slaves and their descendants. read more