Article 8 - Prohibition of Slavery Slavery and Involuntary Servitude. Abolition of the institution of slavery in the United States dates from President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, effective in 1863, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution adopted in 1865. The Thirteenth Amendment also prohibits the holding of a person in involuntary servitude.
Peonage is a form of involuntary servitude based on real or alleged indebtedness.
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court defined involuntary servitude to mean a condition of servitude in which the victim is forced to do labor for another individual through the use or threatened use of physical or legal coercion. Thus, Department of Justice prosecutions of involuntary servitude require evidence showing the use or threatened use of physical or legal coercion by the defendant as a sufficient means of holding the victim to a condition of forced labor. Psychological coercion alone used to hold a person to forced labor does not constitute involuntary servitude. Evidence of coercive measures such as withholding a victim's mail or isolating the victim from members of his family in an effort to dissuade the victim from leaving his place of labor is not by itself sufficient for an involuntary servitude conviction. However, the age, mental competency, or other specific characteristics of a victim may be relevant in determining whether a particular type or a certain degree of physical or legal coercion is sufficient to hold that victim to involuntary servitude.