Holly McCoy, age 13, of Birmingham, Ala., for her question:

DID THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION START THE CIVIL WAR?

Although the debate over slavery was going on for many years, it was not the immediate cause of the Civil War back in the 1860s. The war started rather as a means of preserving the Union against the attempted secession of the Southern States.

Although President Abraham Lincoln was definitely against the idea of slavery, he wasn't sure that an emancipation act should be added to the Union war aims. But by the summer of 1862 he decided that such an act would help the Union effort. He waited for just the right time to make the announcement.

After the Battle of Sharpsburg in September of 1862 that led to the retreat of Robert E. Lee's Confederate forces from Maryland, President Lincoln announced that on Jan. 1, 1863, the slaves were to be made free in all states fighting against the Union.

The Emancipation Proclamation applied only to slaves not under Union control. In 1865 the 13th Amendment ended slavery in all the nation.