William Wilberforce Research Paper

On July 4th 1862, the confederates surrendered the town of Vicksburg to Ulysses S. Grant. This influenced Lincoln to make the biggest decision of his life. He delivered the Emancipation Proclamation on November 19th, 1863, saying the nation’s fundamental goal is that all men are created equal. He states in the speech, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” He wants the country to understand that we are starting something new. The soldiers have struggled to recreate our country, and that the country needs to take advantage of this opportunity. He has now committing himself to getting rid of slavery. On January 31, 1865, Congress officially ends slavery with the thirteenth amendment. The thirteenth amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” After many years, slavery has finally ended. Lincoln passed the thirteenth amendment, meaning slavery can no longer exist in his country. This will help recreate the country that has been broken for many years. From February 1863 through April 1865, Lincoln believed the best way for this country to unite was without slavery, contradicting what he believed from the start of his senate race to Post First

First, he pushed for the Thirteenth Amendment, which actually ended slavery in the United States, and perhaps more importantly, he continued the war to its conclusion and demanded that the end of slavery and the return of the southern states to the Union be conditions for

In the documentation of his early life, his views on slavery are not directly expressed. I think this is in part because he was too young to know any different. While his early life did not offer much opinion on his part, it did start the foundation for his opposition to slavery. All that he was ever exposed to. Slavery was his reality at this time and because it was

Lincoln has different to eliminate slavery but that would be impossible. He also speaks about the education slaves had perspectives on slavery. He expresses his feelings and views on slavery in every speech he gives but in each speech he has different points of view. On some of the speeches he talks about how fast he wants in the southern states and how men preferred to have slaves instead of common men. He also talks of how they worked and were treated horribly. But then his opinions were also indecisive, he wants to satisfy the majority of states by stating his opinions in a way that satisfies the ideas pertain to slavery just to gain political power over his presidential election.

After Lincoln was assassinated, vise president Andrew Johnson stepped into office with a goal to change some of the things he believed in. In the article Andrew Johnson it states, “Next they passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that

slavery, but he realized that this hope was very unlikely to be realized. He writes to

All uses of his power that appear to step out of line with traditional use of presidential power were all related to the war effort. Furthermore, he stood election and refused to abolish slavery nationally without congressional approval, which was accomplished via the 13th amendment. He also deferred to Congress on domestic matters. In fact, he refused to veto bills unless he found them to be unconstitutional. On the domestic front two major achievements were the Morrill Act and the Homestead Act. The Morill Act ceded large grants for the purposes of establishing universities with federal lands. The Homestead Act quickened the settling of the western frontier by allowing families to claim 160 acres for a filing fee and a promise to work the

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson along with others worked diligently to pass laws that would abolish slavery. One by one laws were passed that placed the abolishment of slavery one step closer to being reality. George Washington acting as President of the United States passed the first federal racial civil rights law in America on August 7, 1789. The law prohibited slavery in any new state that wanted to enter the Union. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected President. In 1806, he passed the law banning international slave trade. The law also specified that any trading of slaves was a crime and a violation of human rights. Congress complied in 1807 and the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves was signed into law. Although slave trade was banned, slave smuggling into the United States continued.

On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln announced that after January first of the following year, 1863, any slaves in a state of rebellion would be freed. This did not stir the South much, and the complete abolish of slavery did not take place until the end of the war two years later!

He had a first hand view on the terror of slavery, since he had experienced it as a boy. He had attended many civil rights campaigns, one of which including the women's suffrage rally. Also attending the rally were abolitionists Antoinette Brown and Susan B. Anthony. These people were all victims of unfair treatment who would later help change U.S society.

The controversy of how he can side with the common man’s rights, and yet be a slave-owner is justified by his belief that African people did not know how to survive without the white man, their differences of culture and lack of independence would make living in America’s white society difficult, and because he treated his slaves in a humane manner, he felt he was giving them an acceptable existence in our country. (planetpapers.com)

In his letter to Holmes, more than thirty years later, his feeling on slavery remained the same. He disapproved of the progress that has been made to right the injustice of slavery, and identified the potential harms of dividing the country, on "a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men"(Jefferson). He maintained a rhetoric

“We are all guilty-we ought all to plead guilty, and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others; and I therefore deprecate every kind of reflection against the various descriptions of people who are more immediately involved in this wretched business,” stated William Wilberforce in his, “Abolition Speech.” William Wilberforce was an English politician and he campaigned for the conclusion of slavery. One of the main aspects of slavery that he focused on was the transportation of slaves in awful conditions. Wilberforce delivered this speech at the House of Commons May 12, 1789. The purpose of this speech was to change the audience's beliefs on the slave reform.

“The Abolition Project.” William Wilberforce (1759 -1833): The Politician: The Abolition of Slavery Project, abolition.e2bn.org/people_24.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

William Wilberforce, a member of British Parliament, led a battle against Parliament to put and end to the slave trade, a brutal and inhumane business. It was not an easy feat to accomplish, lasting close to 20 years and there were many obstacles faced throughout the period. With persistence and perseverance, he and others that he worked with, were able to outlaw the slave trade of Britain. Not only did he affect his time period, but had a lasting affect on other societies, starting a movement of abolishing slavery.