Which document primarily freed slaves in the Confederate states?

The Emancipation Proclamation is the key document that primarily freed slaves in the Confederate states. Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were to be set free. This was a strategic wartime measure aimed at undermining the Confederacy's ability to conduct the war and to help reshape the purpose of the Civil War into a fight against slavery.

While the Constitution established the framework for governance in the United States, it did not address the issue of slavery in a way that would have freed individuals. The Bill of Rights, which consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, primarily protects the rights of individuals but does not specifically address the liberation of enslaved people. The Federalist Papers, a collection of articles written to promote the ratification of the Constitution, similarly do not focus on the issue of slavery. Thus, the Emancipation Proclamation stands out as the pivotal document directly connected to the abolition of slavery in the Confederacy.