Which of the following statements best explains how the federal government dealt with the issue of slavery following the Civil War?

A) The Emancipation Proclamation freed all of the slaves, so the federal government had
no responsibility regarding slavery following the Civil War.

B) Congress enacted a plan/program that allowed for the gradual emancipation of the
slaves over a five-year period.

C) Congress created the 13th Amendment, making slavery illegal in the United States; furthermore, Congress made ratification of the 13th Amendment a condition of readmittance into the Union for the secessionist states.

D) Congress allowed slave holders in the border-states to keep their slaves for up to ten
O years, before they would be gradually emancipated; in the former Confederate states,
the Union Army was required to liberate the former slaves.