Which statement is true about the Emancipation Proclamation?

• A. It freed slaves in the Union states that remained loyal
• B. It freed all slaves everywhere immediately
• C. It was issued before the Civil War began
• D. It declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is that the Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime order that declared enslaved people in Confederate-held areas to be free. It was issued during the Civil War and targeted regions in rebellion against the United States, not the slaveholding states that remained loyal to the Union or areas already under Union control. Because it only applied to those Confederate territories, it didn’t free slaves in border states or in parts of the country that were not in rebellion, and it wasn’t a universal, immediate freeing of all enslaved people. The proclamation also helped shift the war’s purpose toward ending slavery and opened the door for Black men to join the Union Army. So the statement that is true is that enslaved people in Confederate-held territory were declared to be free.