What executive order freed all slaves in the Confederacy during the Civil War?

The Emancipation Proclamation is the executive order that freed all slaves in the Confederate states during the Civil War. Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the Proclamation declared that all enslaved people in states or parts of states in rebellion against the United States were to be set free. This was a strategic move during the Civil War, aimed at undermining the Confederacy's labor force and bolstering the Union's moral cause.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the border states that remained loyal to the Union, nor to areas of the Confederacy that had already been captured by Union forces. However, it was a significant step towards the eventual abolition of slavery, as it paved the way for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States.

The other options—Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and Wilmot Proviso—are significant events and legislative measures in U.S. history related to the issue of slavery, but they do not represent executive action to free slaves. The Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850 were efforts to balance slave and free states, while the Wilmot Proviso aimed to ban slavery