Mississippi Ratifies 13th Amendment, 130 Years Late – But It’s Not Official
On this day, the State of Mississippi finally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.
The ratification was 130 years late, but it was still not official. The state failed to notify the U.S. Archivist, so the ratification was technically not official. Mississippi finally sent the proper notification of ratification in February 2013 — 148 years late!
Read: Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction (2000)
View the original document at the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mal&fileName=mal3/436/4361100/malpage.db&recNum=0
Read: Alexander Tsesis, ed, The Promises of Liberty: The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment (2010)
Timeline for ratification of all the amendments to the Constitution: http://www.lexisnexis.com/constitution/amendments_timeline.asp