abraham lincoln on slavery essay

abraham lincoln on slavery essay

Abraham Lincoln’s Perspective on Slavery

1. Introduction

As one studies Lincoln’s involvement in the issue of slavery, it is important to realize that his perspective on slavery’s future in America was a result of a lifelong learning process. Despite the significance modern Americans regard Lincoln, whilst he was alive, he was a man whose principles and actions were rooted in the methods of shifting expediency. The assumption of what course of action would be the most advantageous and/or least prejudicial to the interests of the nation as a whole were held in conjunction for his conservative nationalism and desire to mitigate sectional hostility. Following his presidency, Lincoln’s 1865 assassination and the mythologizing succeeding Southern Reconstruction would see an increasing view that Lincoln was the great tragedy of the south, a figure who sincerely cared for and tried to help the south to ease its transition from plantation to paid labor and seek reconciliation.

Undoubtedly, the nation-creating event of Lincoln’s presidency was the Civil War. Lincoln’s actions and strategies during the war – economic, military, and moral – were geared towards the preservation of the union and the end of slavery. As a result, historians have often treated Lincoln with a dichotomous interpretation. Some view the war as a triumph of the union through Lincoln’s autocratic control over a submissive citizenry and military. Others praise Lincoln’s statesmanship and wisdom, leading to a unified nation regenerated, increased in strength of both arms and principle. Both views of Lincoln’s actions and war strategy have merit, and the war’s outcome was certainly a success for Lincoln in terms of preserving the union. However, in the Recovery and Reconstruction years following Lincoln’s death, the question of racial inequality and the war’s real impact on African-American people led historians to failure – the reconstruction of the south, a coalition of opportunity in which glory-hungry radical despots would meddle in a weakened south. Yet another possibility was a scheme of racial vendetta.

The presidency of Abraham Lincoln has left an indelible mark upon the American nation. By many, he is considered America’s greatest leader and hero. His colossal achievements during the Civil War and the moral and legal legacy he has left thereafter have often led his admirers to develop a deification of Lincoln as the nation’s greatest saint. This has often obscured, as well as enhanced, an objective understanding of Lincoln and his role in American history. It is important as we move into the 21st century that we, as a nation, continue to study and analyze what Lincoln’s presidency meant to the nation, its peoples, and to the world at large.

2. The Historical Background of Slavery

Slavery dates back to early human history. It existed in nearly every culture around the globe, and from the earliest records, the idea of one human being “owning” another has been a universal component of human civilization. This seemingly universal acceptance of slavery by the peoples of the past is not new to the history of the United States. It began to take shape more than 200 years before the United States came into existence. In 1501, the first African slaves were taken to Hispaniola. In 1619, African slaves were first brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia. At this time, the majority of the region’s labor was being done through the indentured servant program, and many of the attendees who came over from Europe were themselves in a form of slavery until their passage to the New World was paid off. These early black settlers lived together with indentured servants of all nationalities and even intermarried. As the supply of indentured servants began to decline, some colonial farmers and plantation owners feared a rebellion among the poor, so it was deemed more beneficial to have slaves who were not likely to escape because of the color of their skin. This idea of race-based slavery was not immediately adopted in the 17th century, but it became law and a fundamental turning point in the development of American slavery. The history of the degradation and the torment of the black race is not a pretty one, but it is necessary to retrace our steps to the very beginning. When African slaves first arrived in America, they were allowed to work to purchase their freedom. As a matter of fact, many blacks and whites of that time were treated as indentured servants and given equal rights in a limited fashion. This sense of equality did not last, and from the early 17th century, the status of both black and white servants began to change. In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to legally recognize slavery. The following years, more laws were put into effect that led to a change in the social/economic status of the negro.

3. Lincoln’s Opposition to Slavery

And so throughout Lincoln’s life, a gradual elucidation of principle was evident in his thinking towards the issue of slavery. To his mind, the institution was a monstrous injustice, and it was an aspect of his character that once he was clear on a question of right and wrong, as he saw it, he was inexorable in his determination to assert what he believed to be true. In 1854, Lincoln famously said, “I hate it (slavery) because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world…”. This illustrates the very reason he felt it was wrong: the racism in slavery deprived the colored man of his rights as a human being. Faced with the ideology that America was a new form of self-government with a distinctive idea of liberty, this now clashed with the existence of black slavery. As a result of this, Lincoln believed that in an effort to impede slavery’s spread, which he considered a moral wrong, he turned to politics. He had a firm grounding by then in Whig economic ideology, and it is the economic effect of slavery which figures importantly in his most famous policy of all.

4. The Emancipation Proclamation

There remains the final freeing of the slaves— essentially the most compelling and most disputable stride taken by Lincoln. Once again there is no agreement as to the basic elements prompting this challenging and historical choice. Regardless, the proposition was politically adroit in its timing, as a military measure intended to fortify people’s spirits in the North, to weaken the resistance, and to put the South at a unilateral level it encountered abroad by proximity to pro-slavery Britain and France. It was issued on September 22, 1862, and declared to produce results on January 1, 1863. It leveled up the war to an unmistakable dispute for human liberty. To withstand, he stated, would be to concede that the essential mission of the Union had failed. Moreover, it would quiet any offer of intervention on the side of the confederacy. Lincoln had constantly disliked slavery, despite he had never taken a radical expression point of term that the nation was to be narrowing towards the entire abolition of it. He had wanted to stop its spread into the western territories. He had hoped for an easy and generous fiasco, in light of the fact that he saw the main reason for the revolt as neglectful Southern political pioneers fooling the Southern people into a proclamation that their rights were being imperiled.

5. Lincoln’s Legacy in the Fight Against Slavery

On April 8, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln had “a very strong impression… that something of great importance was to happen, and that right soon.” Three days later he mentioned to a visitor that he had had “a remarkable dream.” Lincoln was “in [a] singular and indescribable vessel – but always the same – and I had been in it seems a great while… moving rapidly towards a dark and indefinite shore.” He inquired of a boatman how long before they would reach land, and upon being answered “A little time,” which was eighteen and a half years, and that “the vessel had reached half its course, he awoke, though the dream continued to have its effect on him. Under present circumstances, Lincoln devoted considerable mental energy trying to “study out the dream.” He made several attempts, and once contended that this meaning was plain; he must persevere in his fight against slavery for three more years in order to finish his work. At another time, he speculated that the dream applied to the fact that eleven of the seceding states had adopted constitutions emancipating their slaves, and that it was his job to see to it that the new governments would abolish slavery and free it by the Thirteenth Amendment before the war’s end. Finally, he said that the dream furnished evidence that he would be reelected to a second term, and that in that time the country would be saved from the disintegration that seemed so likely.