Final answer:
The statement that the South felt federal law did not ban slavery until 1865 is true. The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, was not ratified until December of that year.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before the Civil War, the South felt that federal law did not ban slavery until 1865. This is a true statement, as it was not until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1865 that slavery was officially abolished in the United States. The South had laws and customs upholding slavery, and while the 1807 ban on the international slave trade impacted the importation of enslaved individuals, it did not abolish the institution itself.
The sentiment in the South was that their regional rights, including the practice of slavery, were to be protected. However, President Abraham Lincoln's stance became increasingly focused on ending slavery as the Civil War progressed, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which declared freedom for slaves in Confederate territories not under Union control.
This proclamation did not immediately free all enslaved people, as it did not apply to border states or parts of the Confederacy under Union control.