The Emancipation Proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states during the Civil War "are, and henceforth shall be free". This meant that slaves in Confederate states that were rebelling against the Union, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, sections of Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and sections of Virginia, would be free. However, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States. It only declared free those slaves living in states not under Union control. The proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control.