Although everyone had to follow the Thirteenth Amendment, it mostly affected and applied to southern states where slavery was dominant like Texas and Virginia. The Thirteenth abolished slavery and freed all slaves in the United States. Northern states like New York never had slaves, so the Thireenth Amendment did not really apply to them. On the other hand, Southern States did have slaves, so the Thirteenth Amendment definitely applied to them since the southern states had to free all of their slaves.