Yes it was. > 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 Stat

Yes it was. > 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. Slavery was legal in the border states until passage of the 13th Amendment.