What freed many of the enslaved people in the south?

Many enslaved people in the South were freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, which declared that all enslaved individuals in Confederate-held territory were to be set free. Additionally, the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, further solidified their freedom. These legal and military actions collectively contributed to the liberation of countless enslaved individuals.