Lincoln, Race, And The Spirit Of The 76

This clearly shows that Lincoln was not out for the Negro but just to preserve the union. He says in many other debates that he thought the Negro had a physical difference from the white man as well as an intellectual difference (Lincoln-Douglas, n. pag.). Lincoln was considered by many in the south to be a bigot, a white supremacist who wanted segregation and opposed civil and political rights for blacks (Oates 21). Stephen B. Oates talks of many of the theories in his book, like that many southerners concluded that Lincoln was with them in the matters of race (22). Many of these examples show that Lincoln was a hypocrite of some sorts. He would appeal to the southerners by making statements that led them to believe that he was against the Negro. Yet he was writing the emancipation proclamation that was supposed to free all of the slaves. This also is debatable that the proclamation freed any slaves at all. The emancipation proclamation is looked at by some as one of the most far-reaching pronouncements ever issued in the United States (Oates 25). Also it is said that the proclamation freed few if any bondsman (Oates 26).

The freedom of America’s slaves has always been accredited to Abraham Lincoln, but he was not always the complete abolitionist as he is commonly portrayed. The “house divided”, as Lincoln depicts it in his famous ‘House Divided’ speech, of the United States during the Civil War, was not always lead towards the freedom of all mankind, and there is sufficient evidence to support this claim. The sixteenth president is most commonly remembered for inducing the courage and determination to end the Civil War, with the Emancipation Proclamation, although when it more closely studied he did not cross the great divide of enslavement vs. freedom with the submittal of that fabled document. When following the many famous quotes and speeches of Lincoln’s life, it appears that he was against all slavery and bondage. At the same time, when more closely examined, the quotes and speeches actually leaned towards his lack of strong opinion on the outcome of slavery. Lincoln is perceived as the most famous revolutionary of American history, but he does not live up to his legacy of being the eradicator of forced servitude.

The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo completely shatters the illusion of the 16th President as the liberator of the slaves. DiLorenzo provides convincing evidence for Lincoln’s overt racism as expressed in his documented views on racial supremacy as stated in his desire to colonize all American blacks outside the United States (p. 4); Lincoln’s views were matched by the majority in the North who used such tools as state constitutional amendments to prohibit the emigration of black people into Northern states like Lincoln’s home of Illinois (p. 4); and that the Presidents war which killed 620, 000 Americans and destroyed 40% of the

The author says that defenders and supporters of Lincoln can always back up his remarks with a redeeming quality. Lincoln admitted his feelings of racial equality; instead he always stated the feeling of white people. He didn’t always carefully construct his answers when speaking about his position of certain topics, although he tried. Lincoln wanted all questions about race removed from all discussion. His strategy to do so was to agree with the Democratic Party that there was no equality between blacks and whites. He used racism strategically to eliminate it. Lincoln did admit that he was in support of colonization because he truthfully believed that blacks and whites could not live together equally. To a man like Frederick Douglass, what Lincoln and the Republicans stood for was disjointed. And to me, while this may have all been a strategy for Lincoln, I feel it necessary to take Douglass’ side of the issue.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America he was frequently referred to as the ‘’The great emancipator’’ and yet although he didn’t publicly call for the emancipation of the entire life. Lincoln established his public career by declaring that he was anti-slavery against slavery’s increasing but not for announcing immediate emancipation. However, the man who began as ‘’anti-slavery’’ eventually announced the emancipation proclamation in which freed all slaves in states that were in rebellion.

"By the time Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, he addressed a divided nation" (Ch. 5 pg. 164). The United States was going through hard times of dealing with slavery in the 1800’s. Slavery was the hot topic in politics of that time period just as the debate over abortion or gay marriage is today. The issue over slavery really grew in the early 1860’s; around the time President Abraham Lincoln took office. Lincoln became president and kept his own personal beliefs about slavery to himself. As his career as president progressed, he embraced the beliefs of Henry Clay and made it clear to everyone how he felt about slavery. The authors purpose to

The freedom of America’s slaves has always been accredited to Abraham Lincoln, but he was not always the complete abolitionist as he is commonly portrayed. The “house divided”, as Lincoln depicts it in his famous ‘House Divided’ speech, of the United States during the Civil War, was not always lead towards the freedom of all mankind, and there is sufficient evidence to support this claim. The sixteenth president is most commonly remembered for inducing the courage and determination to end the Civil War, with the Emancipation Proclamation, although when it more closely studied he did not cross the great divide of enslavement vs. freedom with the submittal of that fabled document. When following the many famous quotes and speeches of Lincoln’s life, it appears that he was against all slavery and bondage. Although when they are more closely examined, the quotes and speeches actually leaned towards his lack of strong opinion on the outcome of slavery. Lincoln is perceived as the most famous revolutionary of American history, but he does not live up to his legacy of being the eradicator of forced servitude.

Firstly, Abraham Lincoln was never a person who said that a african american and white person were equal but instead said that they were man like them so they should be allowed to obtain property like theirs. In his personal life Abe had a unique upbringing and adulthood as he lived. His upbringing with a father who had no education, but was successful in life with what he did and a religious family to beat. Nevertheless, his uneducated father found a way to live a prosperous life being one of the most successful farmers in Kentucky. To boot, his family was one with morals and that came with being a family that was religious just like a great majority of southern culture all of them attended church on Sunday. Next, it came to his adulthood later on in his life he was a lawyer and even a statesman before doing anything else. He became a lawyer after studying for only 18 hours and started to practice law immediately; becoming very successful with the way he could use his words in court. While he was a

The article, Lincoln: A White Supremacist (1968), was written during the Civil Rights movement, when African Americans were fighting for racial equality. The movement is at its height, as the Civil Rights Act gets passed later that year. This may have influenced the author to think negatively towards Abraham Lincoln. The article’s main idea is that Lincoln was not the believed Great Emancipator, as he believed in the racial prejudice of the time, while the purpose of the article is to argue that Lincoln was not as supportive of black people’s rights as myths say he was. The point of view in the article is that Lincoln was not as good of a person as he is believed to be. The author of the article, Lerone Bennett graduated Morehouse College with

The article Address on Colonization, which was produced by Lincoln, is an entire passage showing Lincoln’s view point on colonization. Him supporting colonization of freed slaves also proved that he was a white man who was in opposition of slavery. “... If we deal with those who are not free at the beginning, and whose intellects are clouded by Slavery, we have very poor materials to start with. If intelligent colored men… would move in this matter, much might be accomplished.” This

Even though he naively believed that white men were the supreme race, he was staunchly against slavery as an institution and felt that the Declaration of Independence included black persons. In the same debate, Lincoln goes on to state that he “[does] not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the Negro should be denied every thing” (Lincoln). He believed that ‘the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ as outlined in the Declaration of Independence, applies to all men, regardless of their color, ethnicity, or culture. This may be attributed to the fact that he had not had many encounters with Black slaves until when he was in his late teens, where it had a profound impact on him (Foner 8).

Prior to his election, on October 15, 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech during his last debate. During this debate, Lincoln focused on the issue of discerning the right and wrong of slavery. This topic had become a large key aspect to Lincoln’s president campaign. One point that Lincoln made about slavery was that he had an issue with the fact that slavery took away opportunities from the negro to ever be anything other than someone else’s property. Lincoln thought of it as “…having a tendency to dehumanize the negro-to take away from him the right of ever striving to be a man” (William E. Gienapp, ed., This Fiery Trial: The Speeches and Writings of Abraham

President Lincoln’s opinion of slavery changed drastically over the course of his life. He was against slavery but not always for more than the prevention of its spread. Lincoln did not set out originally in his political career to end slavery in the whole of the union, but it slowly evolved to become his main goal. The development of his opinion on slavery is evident in several of his speeches, letters, and other primary sources.

Abraham Lincoln was the great man of his generation just as well as he is considered a great man in history today. He made a huge difference that impacts us greatly today still. He is one of the main reasons to why we do not have slavery around anymore, along with some help of other people back then that supported him. Even though, racism still exist today it is not as horrifying and sickening as to how it was before back in the 1800s. Considering the fact that Abraham Lincoln ended slavery, in order to have achieve this he created many policies to permanently put slavery to a final end. Some of these policies were: The Gettysburg Address, the Thirteenth Amendment, Emancipation Proclamation, and so on. Slavery was a serious problem that needed a solution and he just so happened to be the type of man that never quit to achieve what he wanted or thought what was right until he achieved his goal. This is a great quality that he had and some of the reasons to why this man was and is greatly respected and appreciated before and today. He detested how unequal African Americans’ were being treated by the people that supported slavery and thought it was the right thing because African Americans’ were only three-fifths of a person. He did not like how the people of the black race did not have all the rights as of the white race, which is why he created the thirteenth amendment. Abraham Lincoln would make speeches and

Abraham Lincoln helped disprove American exceptionalism by favoring the white race, instead of showing equality, instead he attempts to blend the interests of the government (Zinn); the white race, and slaves. Slavery was never one of Lincoln's top priorities, even though he publically agreed “that slavery was founded on injustice and bad policy”, he did not fight for what was morally correct. When the Fugitive Slave law was passed, Lincoln refused to abolish the law; in his heart he knew that this law was injustice and had sympathy for the slaves, yet no action was taken. The Fugitive law gives any southern slave owner the right to hunt down slaves who had escaped and fled to another state. Instead of completely abolishing slavery, Lincoln's initial solution was to free the slaves, but send them back to Africa; this displayed that Lincoln didn’t rather please the superior race, the whites than allow african-American people the freedom to live in America. Abraham focus was more or becoming president again than being steadfast to his