What laws were passed to free slaves?

Answer 1

Prior to the end of the American Civil War, laws to free slaves were passed only by states (and only Northern states did so), not the federal government. In fact, the Constitution did not allow the federal government much say in this area. It could act to end the importation of slaves (which in did in 1805) and could restrict it in the territories that had not yet organized as states (something the Republican Party favored as a means of containing slavery & so pushing it toward extinction, while most Democrats - and the entire South - opposed such action).

Congress could

did have full authority in to legislate on the subject for the District of Columbia. It exercised this right in 1850 legislation ending the slave trade within D.C. (after years of ignoring Northern petitions to do so). But it was not until April of 1862 that Congress acted to emancipate slaves in the capitol.

The next major action to free slaves was the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln. But this was an executive proclamation, not legislation. (Lincoln issued it under his "war powers" as Commander-in-Chief, arguing that depriving the rebel states of the labor they used to enable them to prosecute war was a legitimate military action.)

In 1863-64 all the border states that had remained in the Union, with the exception of Kentucky, passed laws to emancipate their slaves (as Lincoln had been urging them to do). But the final action ensuring the end of slavery in these and all Confederate states at the war's end was again not a piece or ordinary legislation but a Constitutional Amendment, the 13th (recommended by Congress in January 1865; ratified by enough states to take effect in December of that year). Lincoln lobbied Congress hard to pass this amendment (the more so after failed attempts during 1864).

Answer 2

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declaring all enslaved people in Confederate states to be free. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1865, officially abolishing slavery throughout the country. Additionally, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship and equal rights to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves.