On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves within the rebellious States. Of course, it is one thing to make a Proclamation, and a very different thing, in a time of war, in which the south had not yet been vanquished to actually see the effect of that Proclamation. However, in due time, the north was victorious, and those formerly enslaved were now duly freed.
Yet, despite the union having prevailed, there were still some that were being held in bondage, for that Proclamation, freed only those slaves that were within the States that rebelled. This thus meant that in border States such as Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, slavery as an institution was still legal, and although these States had the right to free those so enslaved through appropriate legislation, this still left those that were enslaved before the war, enslaved, in absence of such. While it is true, that many slaves within those States, joined the emigration exodus out of their servitude, there was, as told in the book, “Southern Subversive,” “Nearly 100,000 Americans …still enslaved in Kentucky by the end of the civil war…”
Before, Lincoln became President he was a very accomplished attorney, in which he was quite familiar with the Constitution, of which one of the concerns of Lincoln, was the burning necessity to tie up the loose ends of the freeing of slaves through that Proclamation, with a specific Constitutional Amendment addressing this very issue. That Amendment, was presented to Congress so as to unequivocally eliminate slavery within the United States, and upon its ratification, this is exactly what it achieved.
So then, for those unfortunate people that were still legally enslaved of which their owners were not willing to free them, probably because of their monetary value and usefulness to those owners, the 13th Amendment, provided these still enslaved persons with their deserved freedom. As for those wondering why Lincoln simply didn’t free all of the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation to begin with, regardless of their particular location within the United States; he first of all did not believe he had the legitimate power to do so, and secondly did not wish to force the hand of those border States to possibly secede from the union, and therefore was not willing to tamper with this peculiar institution.
At the conclusion of the war, Lincoln knew that his Presidential Proclamation, issued during war time, might easily be construed to no longer be valid, which is why the 13th Amendment had to come into play. This thus meant for those that had been loyal to the union, but still had held onto their slaves, that they had no choice but to adjust to the fact that the world after that civil war, was not the same world, and quite frankly they probably should have known that this day surely was to come, especially in the recognition that the President had made it very clear that he did not see how a house divided could continue to stand, and thereby America would be either all one thing or all the other.
Fortunately, for those previously enslaved, after the 13th Amendment was ratified, America became, at least on paper, all the other thing, and thereby a land of freedom, of which it has a continuing sacred obligation to truly live up to those immortal words of being that sweet land of liberty, for all.