What slaves were freed in Emancipation Proclamation?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation freed only the slaves in the Confederate states.

"...all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States"

This was further clarified to be:

"... the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: 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."

To summarize -

All slaves in Confederate states not then under control of the Union (which is why several parishes of Louisiana and several counties of Virginia were exempted including the portions of Virginia which were in the process of becoming West Virginia). Note that while Tennessee was a Confederate state, it was under Union control and thus not counted as being in rebellion - thus any slaves there had to wait for further state and federal actions before they were freed.

Answer 2

The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the states or sections of states that were in active rebellion against the authority of the United States government. Slavery in non-rebellion states continued until the passing of the 13th Amendment, which occurred after the end of the War between the States.

The Proclamation merely declared that Southern slaves were free - which meant that Union troops campaigning in the South were licensed to set free any slaves they found. (Meanwhile slavery was allowed to continue in the slave-states that had stayed loyal to the Union.)

Lincoln's real aim was send a message to free nations abroad that if they sent aid to the South, they were supporting slavery. For this reason, Britain and France had to drop their plans to grant formal recognition to the Confederacy.

Answer 3

Nobody directly.

Lincoln 'proclaimed' that all Southern slaves would be 'thenceforward and forever free', at a time when he carried no authority in the South.

And in the slave-states that had remained loyal, he allowed slavery to continue.

But indirectly, the Proclamation led to Union victory (by Keeping the British from supporting the Confederacy), and soon afterwards to the abolition of slavery throughout the USA.

Answer 4

President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation has been criticized for what it did not do, almost as much as it has been cherished for what it did do. It is widely thought that it abolished slavery in the US. It did not. Abolition was not accomplished until 1865, after Lincoln's death, by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. A preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was presented by President Lincoln on September 22, 1862, at the height of the Civil War, and at a time when victory by the Union was in serious doubt. The draft stated that, subject to a few exemptions, all slaves living in those states which had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy would be freed, unless those states returned to the Union by by January 1, 1863. Slaves living in the states that had not seceded, however, were not affected by the Proclamation. None of the Confederate states returned to the fold by Lincoln's deadline. Indeed, none did so until after the end of the Civil War. So on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The irony in the Proclamation was that slaves in the rebel states, over which the US government did not have control, were going to be freed. This type of situation is often called a 'toothless tiger.' On the other hand, slaves living in the states over which the US government did have control, were not going to be freed. This type of situation is often referred to by harsher language. Lincoln, however, was walking a delicately balanced and highly fragile 'political tightrope.' Several of the 'slave-owning' states had not seceded from the Union, but some probably would have done so had they been affected by the Emancipation Proclamation. That might have resulted in the Union losing the Civil War. If so, slavery would have been more strongly entrenched in the South, and the North would not have developed into the strong, powerful and wealthy nation that the US is today. Despite its apparent shortcomings, the Emancipation Proclamation is seen as the first concrete step in ending slavery once and for all in the US. The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified less than three years after Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

Answer 5

Slaves living in the states that had seceded from the union.

Answer 6

Slaves in every state but Maryland were freed in the Emancipation Proclamation.

Answer 7

All slaves in the US.

Answer 8

Black people