Question

This document freed the slaves in the southern states

Answer 1

Your answer here would be the emancipation proclamation Announced by Abraham lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." 

Answer 2

The Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. So forth the nation had approached its third year in a row of a civil war full of bloodshed. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."