page_title: Slave states and free states
section_title: End of slavery
hierarchical_section_title: Slave states and free states / End of slavery
context_page_description: In the history of the United States of America, a slave state was a U.S. state in which the practice of slavery was legal at a particular point in time. A free state was one in which slavery was prohibited. Slavery was an issue that divided the country. It was one of the primary causes of the American Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in every state and territory of the United States. After that time the terms became more or less obsolete because all states were free of slavery.
context_section_description: At the start of the Civil War, there were 34 states in the United States, 15 of which were slave states. Of these, 11 slave states declared their secession from the United States to form the Confederacy. The slave states that stayed in the Union were Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky, and were referred to as the border states. By the time the Emancipation Proclamation was made in 1863 Tennessee was already in Union control. So the Proclamation applied only to the 10 remaining Confederate states. Abolition of slavery also became a condition of the return of local rule in those states that had declared their secession. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery throughout the United States on December 18, 1865, ending the distinction between slave and free states.
caption: Division of states during the Civil War. Blue represents Union states, including those admitted during the war; light blue represents border states; red represents Confederate states. Unshaded areas were not states before or during the Civil War.
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