Why didn't the Emancipation Proclamation free the border states?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation only gave freedom to the slaves in the 10 states which were in rebellion against the Union. Slavery remained legal in Union and border states until the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

Answer 2

Lincoln was trying to keep these states happy, they weren't in rebellion and he didn't want them to join the confederate cause. He was also able to keep the British and French at arms length. The south thought the British would support them because they needed the cotton, but they had wear houses filled with cotton bales .

Answer 3

The emancipation proclamation did not free slaves in the border states because if they did then the border states would have left the union and also to let know that the slaves in the south were free if their owners were killed by the union soldiers. The really purpose of the emancipation proclamation was to bring slavery in to the conflict between the north and south. That would cause Europeans lose interest in helping the south because they didn't allow slavery in their countries.

Answer 4

Because there was a war going on and Lincoln needed the support of the border states. Those who owned a lot of slaves were few in number, but they were very rich, which meant then, as now, they had a lot of political clout. Lincoln could not risk angering that group. And the Proclamation was a "carrot and stick" approach. The "Preliminary" Proclamation was issued in late September 1862, and gave the southern states until January 1, 1863 to stop fighting the war, or THEN, and ONLY then would their slaves be "free". So, if the southern states HAD stopped fighting by January 1, they could have kept their slaves, but would have had to admit that they were still in the United States. As it was, on January 1 nobody was freed suddenly, because the Proclamation applied ONLY to slaves who were living in areas then "in rebellion" - meaning the southern states, who weren't obeying the laws and any "Proclamation" coming out of Washington DC. The south had its own government in Richmond, Virginia, and if they had been able to keep the northern troops out of southern territory the Proclamation would have freed nobody, except those slaves who managed to run away and reach northern territory. It was only as the war went on and northern armies were successful in penetrating into southern territory that the slaves along that path they traveled were freed.