Which amendment historically ended involuntary servitude as a form of punishment and marked the abolition of slavery?

• A. 15th Amendment
• B. 4th Amendment
• C. 6th Amendment
• D. 13th Amendment

Answer: (D)

The main idea is recognizing the constitutional safeguard that directly ends slavery and involuntary servitude. This amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude in almost all cases, with the sole exception that it can be used as punishment for a crime after a person has been duly convicted. Ratified after the Civil War, it represents the formal abolition of slavery in the United States.

Other options address other rights—voting rights regardless of race, protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the rights of people facing criminal trials—areas that do not directly tackle slavery. So the amendment that explicitly ends involuntary servitude and abolishes slavery is the correct one.