The Thirteenth Amendment officially outlawed and made slavery illegal in the United States. Slavery was a huge part of the civil war as the Southern states wanted to keep slavery, because they made most of their money from tobacco and cotton and needed free labor to keep their farms going. The Northern states abolished slavery, these people were called Abolitionists, who were disgusted by slavery and wanted to end it. When the Constitution ratified this amendment it officially stopped slavery throughout the United States.