Did the south free their slaves after the emancipation proclamation?

Answer 1

No.

"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued."

The Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

Answer 2

Some southerners got away with not following the proclamation. If Southerners did follow it, in some cases it did not matter for the slaves' situations. Most ex-slaves did not have any money, therefore they could not move north. Many continued to stay with their masters for food as payment.

Answer 3

No, the slave-owning South had their own President, Jefferson Davis. They did not take directions from foreign countries like the USA.

The proclamation was chiefly meant for the ears of free nations abroad, putting an ethical spin on the war, so that those countries could not help the Confederates without looking pro-slavery themselves.

The effect on Southern slaves was that the Union armies were now licensed to liberate any slaves they came across during their Southern campaigns. (This was mainly to reduce the slave-owners to poverty, not specially a human rights initiative at the time.)