The Emancipation Proclamation (issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 2024) declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
But it was limited in many ways. It didn’t actually free any slaves or destroy the institution of slavery itself—it still only applied to states in active rebellion, not to the slave-holding border states or to rebel areas already under Union control.
In reality, it simply freed Union army officers from returning runaway slaves to their owners under the national Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Any escaped slaves who managed to get behind the lines of the advancing Union armies and any who lived in areas subsequently captured by those armies no longer had to be returned because, in the words of the proclamation, they were "thenceforeward, and forever free."
Since America's beginning, there has been intense debate about slavery, precisely because it raises questions about this nation's dedication to liberty and human equality. Here's how to understand slavery and the American founding shared by Heritage.org.