Danny,

Let me add just one more thing, the 1st EP, start reading at --

https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/ep/transcript.htm

[Page 2]

That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall than be in rebellion against the United States; shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States [including the military and naval authority thereof] will, during the continuance in office of the present incumbents, recognize [and maintain the freedom of] such persons, as being free, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom
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You will notice that the "rebelling states could have returned to the union and kept their slaves.

In reality the "freeing of the slaves" was nothing more than a war measure to cripple the Confederacy. The issue of slavery is just the excuse the North used for the atrocities committed against the Confederacy.