There are 3 claims here:
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order.
Mostly True. The National Archives notes that Proclamations are used to to communicate special observances and commemorative dates while Executive Orders manage the operations of government. Although the Emancipation Proclamation (EP) doesn't appear on. Lincoln's list of presidential executive orders, people use the terms interchangeably.
Executive Orders are signed documents, numbered consecutively, through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government.
Proclamations are signed documents, numbered consecutively, through which the President of the United States communicates information on holidays, commemorations, special observances, and trade.
The Emancipation Proclamation bypassed Congress.
False. The Emancipation Proclamation was enforcing the Second Confiscation Act passed by congress in July 17, 1862. Lincoln specifically refers to the act in his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The EP only applied to the states the Union was at war with. This was within his power as Commander-in-Chief (CiC) of the armed forces to execute the law.
"Sec.9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on (or) being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude and not again held as slaves."
Lincoln feared that after the war, states could reinstate slavery and promoted passage of the 13th Amendment that would abolish slavery.
The Emancipation Proclamation declared 3 million slaves free.
Half true. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to states in rebellion. This 3 million number comes from 1860 census, and is the highest possible number of slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. If you only include the states specified as in rebellion:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And exclude the states the Union controlled (Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Missouri, Delaware, and parts of Louisiana/Virgina), the 3.9 million slaves reduces the maximum to the range of 2.4 million-3.2 million. A clearer image of this slave population density map might make the maximum number of slaves the Emancipation Proclamation could apply to more precise. While Lincoln did declare these slaves free, they were under the control of the Confederate States of America and not subject to his declaration until Union troops conquered territory (see SEC 9).
The official number actually freed isn't known. The autobiography by James McPherson, [Marching Toward Freedom: The Negro in the Civil War, 1861-1865] puts the number at around half a million.
"Thousands of slaves in areas near the Northern army camps left their plantations and went over to the Yankees the first chance they had. More than half a million of the 3,500,000 slaves in the Confederacy came into Union lines and gained freedom during the war."
Harold Holzor came up with the same estimate:
In the end, precisely how many enslaved people the document alone actually freed remains unanswerable. By reliable estimates, the number may approach 500,000.
Lincoln scholar Mark Neely Jr. contends that the Proclamation freed 200,000:
Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of State William Seward maintained that the Emancipation Proclamation freed at least 200,000 slaves by February 1865.
