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"So were there slaves in the North during the Civil War? Yes"

I have heard on various FR threads over the years that there were , I believe, four States that were the last to outlaw slavery and that they were all in the North and that they didn't do away with slavery until after the civil war. I would swear one of them was Massachusetts but I really can't remember the rest. This seem to disagree with you assertions. Was there some related happening that I a getting confused with?

Massachusettes abolished slavery in 1783 so that can't be the case. Of the Northern states only Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware were slave states along with the District of Columbia. West Virginia was admitted in 1863 with a state constitution that called for graduated emancipation. In 1863 the Delaware legislature passed a law ending slavery in that state. By January 1865 both Maryland and Missouri had amended their state constitutions to end slavery. Slavery was ended in D.C. by act of congress in April 1862. Kentucky was the lone holdout when slavery was officially outlawed in December 1865 by adoption of the 13th Amendment. I have no idea how many slaves were being held in Kentucky in December 1865 but I don't doubt that there must have been some.