Abolition of slavery in border states in South wins timeline

In OTL slavery was ended in two legal ways. One was the emancipation proclamation which only had an actual effect when areas in rebellion were defeated. The other part was the 13th amendment which took effect after the defeat of the rebellion.

Now if one imagines the South winning, but not taking Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, and I suppoe Delaware what would have happened to slaves there.

IN principle if the rest of the North wanted it there would be the chance of passing somethign like the 13th amendment.

However there may be a wish not to alienate states.

This would have had key effect. Plainly if there were no slavery in the Union crossing the border woudl be the equivalant of freedom, since slave owners in the sessessionist area would not be able to invoke rights under the US Constitution.
 
I was thinking about it recently. If the South would have won, Lincoln would have to delay his Emancipation Proclamation because the fear of the border states seceding would always be real.
 
I was thinking about it recently. If the South would have won, Lincoln would have to delay his Emancipation Proclamation because the fear of the border states seceding would always be real.

I don't necessarily believe that there would be a fear of the border states seceding, since they will basically be militarily occupied as they were historically. What would probably happen would be the first post-peace election will probably see the state legislatures forcibly changed and replaced by pro-Union legislators that will abolish slavery within them. The Federal government will then pass an amendment when they are sure that all states will sign off on it.

However, I will agree that the border states could be problematic if Washington really is heavy handed.
 
The states you cite - Missouri, Maryland and Delaware - had precious little support for slavery anyway. Missouri had to gerrymander itself pretty badly to keep the Abolitionists from succeeding during the 1850s; after the redistricting based on the 1860 census, it would have abolished slavery quickly, say 1864. Maryland and Delaware were in the same boat - agricultural slavery had ceased to be profitable enough and industrial slavery was not working out (using slaves as skilled labor means teaching them literacy, critical thinking and a useful trade; once a person has those things, it's much harder to keep them down). I expect the Federal government doesn't have to do anything, slavery vanishes quickly.

Kentucky is the only place where slavery could still be practical. But I don't think Kentucky cares to be the only slave state in the Union. They probably get rid of it 1868 or so.
 
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