What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared that all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory were to be set free. This was a strategic war measure aimed at weakening the Confederacy during the Civil War by disrupting its labor force, and it was limited to those states that were in rebellion against the Union, meaning it did not extend to slave-holding border states or areas already under Union control. Thus, it specifically targeted enslaved individuals in the Confederate states to encourage their escape and reduce the South's capacity to wage war.

The proclamation did not free all slaves in the North or those in U.S. territories, and it certainly did not end the war, as fighting continued for more than two years after its issuance.