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Q. 91 / 128American History → The 1800s

What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

OFFICIAL ANSWER
  • Freed the slaves
  • Freed slaves in the Confederacy
  • Freed slaves in the Confederate states
  • Freed slaves in most Southern states
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Context

Lincoln issued the proclamation as a wartime measure using his authority as commander-in-chief. It aimed to weaken the Confederacy economically and militarily while preventing European powers from supporting the South. The proclamation transformed the Civil War from a fight to preserve the Union into a fight for human freedom, though full legal emancipation required the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

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