Any guy who is going on a date knows all about being delayed by the woman they are taking out. It’s almost a part of a ritual for a woman to be running late. But as late as they might be they will never be as late as Mississippi was when they ratified the law abolishing slavery. Why I hear you ask? After 147 years, Mississippi finally ratifies anti slavery 13th amendment in 2013. As we said, it was a staggering 147 years late.
On the 6 December 1865, the 13th amendment to the US constitution was officially noted. For those who don’t know what the 13 amendment is, it’s the law that abolished slavery throughout the United States. In the years since, the US has undergone radical change. It has participated in two world wars, one of which many soldiers witness first hand the horrors of genocide. They have gone through the space race, cold war, and more importantly, the Civil Rights Movement. Yet through all of that, Mississippi failed to ratify the amendment abolishing slavery. But why? Did the law makers in Mississippi secretly support slavery?
Don’t be silly. Of course they didn’t support slavery. It just never went through the full procedure to be ratified. But it was finally rectified in 2013, but only thanks to a movie and two academics.
When Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln was released in 2013 two men began to wonder about the implementation of the 13th amendment following the civil war.One of the men, Ken Sullivan, who’s an anatomical material specialist at UMC, recalled a move by the state legislature in 1995 to ratify the amendment. He then went digging and found that although it had passed both houses, it remained unratified. The reason for the bill never being fully ratified was because the last paragraph required the secretary of state to send a copy to the office of the federal register, to officially sign it into law. For some reason it was never sent. That is until the paperwork was filed on 30 January, 2013, and the state of Mississippi finally ratified the anti slavery 13th amendment on February 7, 2013.
I do suppose that it’s better late than never.
