What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

Why this is the answer

The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the Confederate states. President Lincoln issued it in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War. The name explains itself once you know the two words: emancipation means freedom, and a proclamation is an announcement. USCIS accepts four versions of the answer: freed the slaves, freed slaves in the Confederacy, freed slaves in the Confederate states, and freed slaves in most Southern states. They all say the same thing with different precision, so use whichever comes out naturally. The narrower versions exist for a reason. The proclamation was aimed at the Confederate states, and it was issued while those states were still fighting the Union, so most enslaved people in the South were not actually freed until the war was over. Many of the people it declared free joined the Union army. When the war ended in 1865, their freedom held. The proclamation also led to a permanent change in the Constitution. Congress passed the 13th Amendment in January 1865, and it was ratified on December 6 of that year. It says that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may exist anywhere in the United States, except as punishment for a crime. The proclamation was a wartime order; the amendment made the end of slavery part of the supreme law. Juneteenth, June 19, connects the two. On that day in 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, became the last to learn that they were free, and the date is now a national holiday that recognizes the end of slavery. "It ended the Civil War" sounds plausible but is wrong: the war went on for two more years after the proclamation. Another mix-up is with the 13th Amendment itself. If the officer asks what the proclamation did, answer with freedom for the slaves, ideally with "in the Confederate states" if you can say it comfortably.