- Event type: CREATE_FROM
United States Fourteenth Amendment & The Civil Rights Act of 1866
An amendment to the Constitution of the United States that granted citizenship and equal rights, both civil and legal, to Black Americans, including those who had been emancipated by the thirteenth amendment.
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate for the Thirty-Ninth Session of Congress
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Session 14466: 1867-01-12 00:00:00
H. R. 956 is received from the Senate.
Document View:
H. R. 956
A BILL
To enforce the thirteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Whereas the Congress of the United States, at the second session of the thirty-eighth Congress, proposed to the several States for adoption the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, which has now, by ratification of three fourths of the States of the Union, become part of the Constitution, and which by its terms forever prohibits slavery or involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted;" and whereas in some parts of this Union it is wrongfully asserted and maintained that, notwithstanding said amendment, it is lawful to sell or otherwise commit into unofficial subjection and slavery persons who may be convicted of offenses against the law, by reason whereof certain inferior tribunals have adjudged free citizens of the United States to be so disposed of as to re-establish chattel slavery for life, or for years, against the principles of the Christian religion, of civilization, and of the Constitution of the United States, which now recognizes no involuntary servitude, except to the law and to the officers of its administration: Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person or persons who shall hereafter sell, or offer for sale, or attempt to sell, any person or persons whomsoever, within the limits of the United States, or who shall make or issue any order for such sale, or who shall in any wise participate in such sale or such attempted sale, or who shall hereafter hold in servitude any person so sold, shall be held to be guilty of a felony, and shall, upon conviction thereof, be imprisoned for a period of time not exceeding ten years, or fined in a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, or both, in the discretion of the court by which such offender shall be tried.
Decisions yet to be taken
- H. R. 956 (introduced on 1867-01-12 00:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e903933) [This document]
Document Timeline
- H. R. 956 (introduced on 1867-01-12 00:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e903933) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]