Civil War: Question 9 Read the excerpt from the Emancipation Proclamation.
That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall
then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.
-Abraham Lincoln
Based on the excerpt, which action did President Abraham Lincoln take?