Answer:
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1st, 1863, during the Civil War, provided for the permanent release of all slaves fleeing southern war zones and slaves working in territories occupied by the northern armed forces.
The declaration was limited to the territories of the ten states of the Confederation but not to the entire United States, and thus did not in itself completely abolish slavery, that continued in other areas of the United States. The declaration promised liberated African-American men the right to join the Union Army and Navy, and by the end of the war nearly 200,000 African-Americans are believed to have fought on the side of the Union.