Question

What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. It declared that all slaves in Confederate states that were still in rebellion against the Union were to be freed. This effectively changed the legal status of over 3 million enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states, turning the Civil War into a struggle for freedom and ending the institution of slavery in those states.