Final answer:
The Emancipation Proclamation declared that slaves in Confederate states would be freed if they did not rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863. The Proclamation only applied to Confederate states not occupied by Union troops and exempted certain regions. It did not immediately free all slaves in the South and required a significant Union army presence to enforce.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Emancipation Proclamation was a document issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It declared that slaves in Confederate states would be freed, but only if those states did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. The Proclamation only applied to Confederate states that were not occupied by Union troops, exempting certain regions in Virginia, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Slaves in the exempted regions were not freed, and the Proclamation did not immediately free all slaves in the South, as it was difficult to enforce the directive without a significant Union army presence.