Cited and Quoted From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Ratification by the states

When the Thirteenth Amendment was submitted to the states on February 1, 1865, it was quickly taken up by several legislatures. By the end of the month it had been ratified by eighteen states. Among them were the ex-Confederate states of Virginia and Louisiana, where ratifications were submitted by Reconstruction governments. These, along with subsequent ratifications from Arkansas and Tennessee raised the issues of how many seceded states had legally valid legislatures; and if there were fewer legislatures than states, if Article V required ratification by three-fourths of the states or three-fourths of the legally valid state legislatures.^[66] President Lincoln in his last speech, on April 11, 1865, called the question about whether the Southern states were in or out of the Union a “pernicious abstraction.” Obviously, he declared, they were not “in their proper practical relation with the Union”; whence everyone’s object should be to restore that relation.^[67] Lincoln was assassinated three days later.

With Congress out of session, the new President, Andrew Johnson, began a period known as “Presidential Reconstruction”, in which he personally oversaw the creation of new state governments throughout the South. He oversaw the convening of state political conventions populated by delegates whom he deemed to be loyal. Three leading issues came before the convention: secession itself, the abolition of slavery, and the Confederate war debt. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina held conventions in 1865, while Texas’ convention did not organize until March 1866.^[68][69][70] Johnson hoped to prevent deliberation over whether to re-admit the Southern states by accomplishing full ratification before Congress reconvened in December. He believed he could silence those who wished to deny the Southern states their place in the Union by pointing to how essential their assent had been to the successful ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.^[71]

Direct negotiations between state governments and the Johnson administration ensued. As the summer wore on, administration officials began including assurances of the measure’s limited scope with their demands for ratification. Johnson himself suggested directly to the governors of Mississippi and North Carolina that they could proactively control the allocation of rights to freedmen. Though Johnson obviously expected the freed people to enjoy at least some civil rights, including, as he specified, the right to testify in court, he wanted state lawmakers to know that the power to confer such rights would remain with the states.^[72] When South Carolina provisional governor Benjamin Franklin Perry objected to the scope of the amendment’s enforcement clause, Secretary of State Seward responded by telegraph that in fact the second clause “is really restraining in its effect, instead of enlarging the powers of Congress”.^[72] White politicians throughout the South were concerned that Congress might cite the amendment’s enforcement powers as a way to authorize black suffrage.^[73]

When South Carolina ratified the amendment in November 1865, it issued its own interpretive declaration that “any attempt by Congress toward legislating upon the political status of former slaves, or their civil relations, would be contrary to the Constitution of the United States”.^{[23]:1786–1787[74]} Alabama and Louisiana also declared that their ratification did not imply federal power to legislate on the status of former slaves.^{[23]:1787[75]} During the first week of December, North Carolina and Georgia gave the amendment the final votes needed for it to become part of the Constitution.

The Thirteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution on December 6, 1865, based on the following ratifications:^[76]

1. Illinois — February 1, 1865
2. Rhode Island — February 2, 1865
3. Michigan — February 3, 1865
4. Maryland — February 3, 1865
5. New York — February 3, 1865
6. Pennsylvania — February 3, 1865
7. West Virginia — February 3, 1865
8. Missouri — February 6, 1865
9. Maine — February 7, 1865
10. Kansas — February 7, 1865
11. Massachusetts — February 7, 1865
12. Virginia — February 9, 1865
13. Ohio — February 10, 1865
14. Indiana — February 13, 1865
15. Nevada — February 16, 1865
16. Louisiana — February 17, 1865
17. Minnesota — February 23, 1865
18. Wisconsin — February 24, 1865
19. Vermont — March 8, 1865
20. Tennessee — April 7, 1865
21. Arkansas — April 14, 1865
22. Connecticut — May 4, 1865
23. New Hampshire — July 1, 1865
24. South Carolina — November 13, 1865
25. Alabama — December 2, 1865
26. North Carolina — December 4, 1865
27. Georgia — December 6, 1865

Having been ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states (27 of the 36 states, including those that had been in rebellion), Secretary of State Seward, on December 18, 1865, certified that the Thirteenth Amendment had become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution.^[77] Included on the enrolled list of ratifying states were the three ex-Confederate states that had given their assent, but with strings attached. Seward accepted their affirmative votes and brushed aside their interpretive declarations without comment, challenge or acknowledgment.^[78]

The Thirteenth Amendment was subsequently ratified by:^[76]

19th Century Ratification

• Oregon — December 8, 1865
• California — December 19, 1865
• Florida — December 28, 1865 (Reaffirmed – June 9, 1869)
• Iowa — January 15, 1866
• New Jersey — January 23, 1866 (After rejection – March 16, 1865)
• Texas — February 18, 1870

20th Century Ratification

• Delaware — February 12, 1901 (After rejection – February 8, 1865)
• Kentucky — March 18, 1976^[79] (After rejection – February 24, 1865)
• Mississippi — March 16, 1995; Certified – February 7, 2013^[80] (After rejection – December 5, 1865)

The Thirteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution 61 years after the Twelfth Amendment. This is the longest interval between constitutional amendments.^[81]