Abraham Lincoln's Anti-Slavery Views

396 Words1 Page

The first chapter opens with one of the most quoted words from Lincoln, “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think, and feel.” (Foner, 2010, p. 3) Lincoln anti-slavery views were initially from the influence of his parents, although his father’s uncle owned 43 slaves. In his early childhood, there were more than 1,000 slaves in Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1811, where he was born two years earlier. When Lincoln was seven years old, the family moved to Indiana “partly on account of slavery”. (Foner, 2010, p. 5)

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, which is today much of the Midwest. In the same year that Lincoln’s family moved

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Lincoln's House Divided By Abraham Lincoln

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lincoln was a very smart lawyer and politician. During his “House Divided” speech he asked the question, “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half slave, and half free?" When he first asked this question, America was slowly gaining the knowledge and realizing that as a nation, it could not possibly exist as half-slave and half-free. It was either one way or the other. “Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral, but not simply on a practical level.” (Greenfield, 2009) Slave states and free states had significantly different and incompatible interests. In 1858, when Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech, he made people think about this question with views if what the end result in America must be.

    Read More

  • Lincoln's First Inaugural Address Summary

    540 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thus, the information expresses personal opinions from the point of view of Lincoln and the writers who contributed to the article. Similar to Lincoln’s views, a section in the article goes against the Confederacy because they have disrupted the peace within the Union. For example, the men of the Border States fear their welfare while trying to ward off the fear of a possible great disaster (New York Tribune, 9 March 186, p.6). On the other hand, the views from the south in the article saw Lincoln and his Cabinet as enemies to the Institution of Slavery. Salmon P. Chase is seen to be one of the most offensive man to the south because of his power and influence to command and humiliate sections of where slavery exists (New York Tribune, 9 March 186, p.6). Finally, Lincolns speech is geared towards the Union as a whole rather than the article, where it’s focused on subsections of the

    Read More

  • Phillip Shaw Paludan's The Presidency Of Abraham Lincoln

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the time, the South depended on slavery to support their way of life. In fact, “to protect slavery the Confederate States of America would challenge the peaceful, lawful, orderly means of changing governments in the United States, even by resorting to war.” (635) Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and realized that slavery was bitterly dividing the country. Not only was slavery dividing the nation, but slavery was also endangering the Union, hurting both black and white people and threatening the processes of government. At first, Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union in which “he would free none, some, or all the slaves to save that Union.” (634) However, Lincoln realized that “freeing the slaves and saving the Union were linked as one goal, not two optional goals.” (634) Therefore, Lincoln’s primary goal was to save the Union and in order to save the Union, Lincoln had to free the slaves. However, Paludan states that, “slave states understood this; that is why the seceded and why the Union needed saving.” (634) Lincoln’s presidential victory was the final sign to many Southerners that their position in the Union was

    Read More

  • Lincoln-Douglas Debate

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was the belief that the expansion of it to Free states and new territories should be ceased and that it eventually be abolished completely throughout the country. He believed simply that slavery was morally wrong, along with socially and politically wrong in the eyes of a Republican. Lincoln felt that this was a very important issue during the time period because there was starting to be much controversy between the Republicans and the Democrats regarding this issue. There was also a separation between the north and the south in the union, the north harboring the Free states and the south harboring the slave states. Lincoln refers many times to the Constitution and its relations to slavery. He was convinced that when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution their intentions were to be quite vague surrounding the topic of slavery and African-Americans, for the reason that he believes was because the fathers intended for slavery to come to an end in the distant future, in which Lincoln refers to the "ultimate extinction" of slavery. He also states that the men who wrote the constitution were wiser men, but obviously did not have the experience or technological advances that the men of his day did, hence the reasons of the measures taken by our founding fathers.

    Read More

  • Celia, A Slave...

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The American constitution recognized slavery as a local constitution within the legal rights of the individual states. But in the North slavery was not adaptable to the local economy, and to many, it contradicted the vision of the founding fathers for a nation in which all men are to be free. The South considered slavery as a necessary institution for the plantation economy. It was linked to the local culture and society. As the United states expanded, the North worried that the South would introduce slavery into the new territories. Slavery had become both a moral issue and a question of political power." (Kral p61)

    Read More

  • The Growing Opposition to Slavery

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ten years later, in 1787, slavery was prohibited in the Northwest Territory by the Northwest Ordinance. The Northwest Territory was the first organized territory of the United States. States pertaining to the Northwest Territory: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The abolition of slavery in the Northwest Territory led to thoughts held by pro-slavery southerners that the North had the edge in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Therefore, in 1787, two delegates by the names of Roger Sherman and James Wilson introduced the Three Fifths compromise in the Philadelphia Convention.

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipation

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    In a speech that Lincoln gave prior to his presidency, we can see how ambiguous his stance on slavery truly was. This speech, known as the ‘House Divided’ speech, was given on the 16th of June, 1858, and outlined his beliefs regarding secession, but did not solidify the abolition of slavery as his main goal. Lincoln states that the nation “could not endure, permanently half slave and half free,” and that the slavery will either cease to exist, or will encompass all states lawfully (Lincoln). At this point in his life, Lincoln’s primary concern is clearly with the preservation of the nation.

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    The issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th amendment are two of Lincoln’s most influential documents enacted during his presidency. The Emancipation Proclamation “...declared over three million slaves in the rebel states of the Confederacy to be ‘thenceforward and forever free’...”(Guelzo). This action eventually took the country to the final abolition of slavery when the 13th amendment was introduced, declaring: “Neither slavery

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln and Slavery

    1612 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln and Slavery Many Americans believe that Abraham Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator,” the sole individual who ended slavery, and the man who epitomizes freedom. In his brief presidential term, Lincoln dealt with an unstable nation, with the South seceding from the country and in brink of leaving permanently.

    Read More

  • Fredrick Douglass Argumentative Analysis

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”( Douglass). This famous quote epitomizes the philosophies of Frederick Douglass, in which he wanted everyone to be treated with dignity; if everyone was not treated with equality, no one person or property would be safe harm. His experience as a house slave, field slave and ship builder gave him the knowledge to develop into a persuasive speaker and abolitionist. In his narrative, he makes key arguments to white abolitionist and Christians on why slavery should be abolished. The key arguments that Frederick Douglass tries to vindicate are that slavery denies slaves of their identity, slavery is also detrimental for the slave owner, and slavery is ungodly.

    Read More

  • The Real Lincoln by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    In The Real Lincoln, Thomas J. DiLorenzo argues thematically throughout nine chapters about the misconception of Abraham Lincoln. He opens each chapter with an argumentative main body, and then provides sources and examples to back up his argument. In chapter two, the belief that Lincoln was the man who fought solemnly against slavery is questioned. DiLorenzo says that, “… Lincoln stated over and over that he was opposed to racial equality” (11). Before his reign as governor of Illinois and presidency, Lincoln ...

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

    1503 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.

    Read More

  • Republicanism Apush

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    Northwest Ordinance of 1787- Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance to prohibit Slavery in the Northwest Territory

    Read More

  • The Secession Crisis

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contrary to what today’s society believes about Lincoln, he was not a popular man with the South at this time. The South wanted to expand towards the West, but Lincoln created a geographical containment rule keeping slavery in the states it currently resided in. Despite his trying to rationalize with the South, Lincoln actually believed something different ”Lincoln claimed that he, like the Founding Fathers, saw slavery in the Old South as a regrettable reality whose expansion could and should be arrested, thereby putting it on the long and gradual road ”ultimate extinction” (216). He believed it to be “evil” thus “implying that free southerners were evil for defending it”(275). Lincoln wanted to wipe out slavery for good, and the South could sense his secret motives.

    Read More

  • Compromise of 1877

    2202 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are certain historical facts, which have been lost in the public memory, as certain legends have taken the place of reality. In order to fully understand what happened, it is necessary to comprehend that the Northern states were far from being uniformly the champions of equal rights that is generally indicated by popular belief. By this understanding, that is that the abandonment of African-Americans did not constitute a drastic change of moral position for many people in the North, it is easier to understand their subsequent actions in ignoring the plight of African-Americans in the South after the Reconstruction era. An example of one of these overlooked historical facts would be that there were still slaves in the nation’s capital in 1860; and, at that time, the President-elect, Abraham Lincoln, offered, “to support a constitutional amendment to insulate the institution of slavery in the slave states from federal interference. ”6....

    Read More

More about Abraham Lincoln's Anti-Slavery Views

Open Document