Civil War: Question 9
 Read the excerpt from the Emancipation Proclamation.
 That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
 all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall
 then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.
 -Abraham Lincoln
 Based on the excerpt, which action did President Abraham Lincoln take?