Imagine the most consequential legal event in U.S. history.

Some people almost certainly think of that fateful day in 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board of Education.

Others likely imagine the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or perhaps when we moved from the Articles of Confederation to the U.S. Constitution we know now.

But for many, the biggest, most important legal event in this country's history is not the first founding, but the second. The passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 marked the end of the U.S.' time as a slave state and began this country's march toward the inclusion of all people into its social and political life.
 

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