Madison and Freeing the Slaves

On March 16, 1995, the state of Mis­sis­sip­pi for­mal­ly rat­i­fied the Thir­teenth Amend­ment, becom­ing the last state of the Union to approve the abo­li­tion of slav­ery. The Thir­teenth Amend­ment had been offi­cial­ly rat­i­fied in 1865, one hun­dred thir­ty years earlier.

James Madi­son, fourth Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States and “Father of the Con­sti­tu­tion,” was born on this date in 1751.