Abraham Lincoln's Relentless Struggle To End Slavery

Created to free the slaves, Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, but then what? Historians have struggled to answer this question and in the process have come up with their own thesis about Lincoln’s character and how it played a role in actually emancipating the slaves. Eric Foner in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery and LaWanda Cox’s Lincoln and Black Freedom - A Study in Presidential Leadership argues that it is Lincoln’s moral and political education that held the capacity for growth that made Lincoln such a great leader and the reason why the slaves were freed. Richard Striner’s Father Abraham: Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle To End Slavery complements Lincoln on his gift for strategy and writes that military emancipation was all part of his secret plan to free the slaves. While James Oakes essay Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865, is confidant that although Lincoln claimed the war was to reunite the Union it was always about slavery. James M. McPherson thinks that Lincoln had strategically acted at the right time. While Henry

Striner does directly disagree with Bennett, writing that Lincoln’s “moral strategy in politics… was connected to his prosecution of the war.” While Bennett argues that Lincoln had later decided to free the slaves with military emancipation for a guaranteed Union win. Striner rebuttled arguing that it was all part of Lincoln’s original plan. Cox also disagrees with Bennett writing that “Lincoln’s opposition to slavery and his wartime commitment to emancipation were motivated by moral principle, not by mere expediency...” However, Foner would be placed in the middle of the arguments, claiming that Lincoln’s actions were also based on his morals, but he takes into consideration that politics did play a role in how pursued things