"Did the Emancipation Proclamation free all the slaves in the United States? Many people think it did, but the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all the slaves in the United States and here is why.
The Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free any slaves because it related only to areas under the control of the Confederacy. The South broke away from the North, and President Lincoln couldn't make slave owners living in the Confederate states of America obey the Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War ended and the South became part of the United States again, the South had to obey Lincoln.
The Emancipation Proclamation didn't include slaves in the border states and in some southern areas under the North's control, such as Tennessee and parts of Virginia and Louisiana. Although no slaves were actually freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it did lead to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment became a law on December 18, 1865, and ended slavery in all parts of the United States.""
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Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, and Missouri were officially slave states. Other states also tolerated some degree of slavery. New Jersey for example still had a few (I think four) "indentured servants for life" as late as the 1870 census (which is after the 13th amendment had passed). There was a large open air slave market in Washington itself (which Lincoln had voted against closing when he was a congressman).
“Actually there were no slaves in the North. The North were free states.”
Ever heard of the “border states”? We consider them part of “the North,” since they stayed in the Union.