2008 civics test · Question 76 · 1800s
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Any one of these answers is accepted
- freed the slaves
- freed slaves in the Confederacy
- freed slaves in the Confederate states
- freed slaves in most Southern states
What this means
The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. More precisely, it freed enslaved people in the Confederate states during the Civil War.
President Abraham Lincoln issued it on January 1, 1863. It declared that the enslaved people in the states fighting against the Union were free. It did not end slavery everywhere at once, but it changed the purpose of the war and pointed the country toward the total end of slavery, which came with the 13th Amendment in 1865.
Both tests ask this the same way. Answer: it freed the slaves.
Why this is on the test
The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most famous documents in American history, and both tests ask what it did.
How this question is asked
On the 2008 civics test, the officer asks up to 10 of the 100 questions out loud and you pass by answering 6 correctly. You answer in your own words. There is no multiple choice and nothing to write down for the civics portion.
This question also appears on the 2025 civics test , as question 95.
Related questions
More from 1800s.
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- 72 Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.
- 73 Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.
- 74 Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
- 75 What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did? ★ 65/20 question
- 77 What did Susan B. Anthony do?