Mississippi Finally Abolished Slavery… Two Weeks Ago?
We've come a long way as a nation. Slavery was abolished 149 years ago in this great land... or was it? Strange that this came out during Black History Month, but it turns out slavery was finally abolished just two weeks ago.
I was blown away when I read the story of Dr. Ranjan Batra of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He was born in India, but he became a U.S. citizen in 2008. His age wasn't given, but I'd guess he's in his late 40s.
Ranjan saw the movie "Lincoln" in November, noticed that Mississippi voted against the 13th amendment that freed the slaves, and got curious about when his home state finally ratified it officially. What he found out was shocking... they hadn't yet!
Mississippi voted to ratify it in 1995, which was only 131 years after it was added to the constitution, but they never filed the paperwork with the U.S. Archivist. So it wasn't official.
Apparently, no one knows why the Archivist wasn't notified in 1995, but when the state government found out they hadn't abolished slavery yet, they took care of it. Slavery was finally abolished in the state of Mississippi on February 7th, 2013.
How could something like this have slipped through the cracks? Do you think that if it wasn't for the investigation by Dr. Ranjan Batra that slavery would still be legal in Mississippi? Had it not been for him do you think anyone would have ever caught on to this? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.