What Did the Emancipation Proclamation Do? Civics Question 95

It freed the slaves.

Question 95 asks what the Emancipation Proclamation did. The accepted answers are that it freed the slaves, that it freed slaves in the Confederacy, that it freed slaves in the Confederate states, and that it freed slaves in most Southern states. Any one of them is a full answer.

What the Order Did

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and it took effect on January 1, 1863. It declared enslaved people in the states in rebellion to be free.

It applied to the Confederate states, the ones fighting against the Union. It did not reach the slaveholding states that had stayed in the Union, and it could only be enforced where Union forces had control.

Slavery ended everywhere in the United States with the 13th Amendment, which was ratified in 1865. The Proclamation was the wartime order, and the amendment made it permanent and complete.

Why the Officer Asks This

This is the point where the Civil War became a war about ending slavery as well as holding the country together.

The Proclamation also appears in question 93, which asks you to name an important event of the Civil War, and behind question 94, which asks what Lincoln is famous for. One fact carries three questions.

Common Ways People Get This Wrong

The test accepts “it freed the slaves” as a full answer. The narrower answers about the Confederacy, the Confederate states, and most Southern states are also accepted, so both levels of detail are correct.

The mistake to avoid is talking past the answer. Applicants who start explaining which states were covered, and which were not, sometimes end up saying it freed nobody. That is not what the officer is listening for.

How to Remember It

Read the word itself. To emancipate means to set free. A proclamation is an official announcement.

Emancipation Proclamation: an official announcement setting people free. The name tells you the answer, so if the phrase comes up on test day, translate the two words and say what they mean.

What to Say on Test Day

Say “it freed the slaves.” Then stop.

If you would rather be specific, say “it freed the slaves in the Confederate states.” Both are marked correct, and neither one needs a date attached.