Why did the Emancipation Proclamation not free enslaved people in the border states?

The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the border states—Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri—primarily because President Abraham Lincoln viewed maintaining their loyalty to the Union as a critical military necessity.12

Lincoln feared that any move toward emancipation in these slave-holding states would incite them to secede, which would have been a devastating blow to the Union cause. Furthermore, the proclamation was issued by Lincoln in his capacity as commander in chief as a war measure directed specifically at territory in rebellion against the United States. Because the border states had not seceded and remained within the Union, they were not considered to be in rebellion, and the proclamation did not legally apply to them.123

Ultimately, Lincoln sought to balance moral imperatives with the political and military realities of the time, focusing the proclamation on areas outside of his direct control to undermine the Confederate labor force while preserving the fragile coalition of states that remained loyal to the Union.13