Remember, the Emancipation Proclamation applied ONLY to those States the North did NOT control. It did not apply to Border States or Northern States. There was nothing keeping them from declaring it in 1861 in the States the North controlled.
But, slavery wasn’t really their issue.
FYI.
You’re correct.
That fact is parsed to death by south haters here
Why did Lincoln not free slaves under his control?
I guess cause he didn’t want to deal with them
Who would feed them etc
They ideally hoped they would all stay down south once freed and negate any political power of the rebels and become totally dependent on their new federal masters
Kind of how it turned out in the end now
Just the political parties changed coats
Nothing except the Constitution.