The passage of the 13th amendment seems simple. Lincoln declared the emancipation proclamation and set the majority of the slaves free. General opinion was already shifting toward abolition and a bill like the 13th amendment seemed inevitable. This is the well-known but extremely overgeneralized view of national abolition. Leonard L. Richards attempts to correct this general perspective in Who freed the slaves?. He argues that abolitionists were actually fighting an uphill battle throughout the civil war. Not only was there opposition from Democrats, the majority of Republicans was also against abolition. This only changed near the end of the civil war with countless endeavors to change public opinion and heavy secret bargaining. Before the …show more content…
Jayne argues in this book that the values contained within the declaration of independence heavily influenced Lincoln and that Lincoln attempted to make these values available to African Americans. This type of thinking directly coincides with the modern pro-Lincoln school’s assertion that Lincoln was a good influence on racial thinking. Foner’s Give Me Liberty takes a nearly opposite stance on the issue. The description of emancipation in this textbook reflected Lincoln’s hesitance and actual necessity of emancipation rather than its applications to racial equality. All of the major details were included such as the Corwin amendment and issue of black military service but the book stated pressure from military losses as the cause of emancipation rather than political exchanges. Either way, Give Me Liberty fits into the anti-great emancipator school although it does recognize the positive significance of Lincoln’s actions. Richard’s Who Freed the Slaves? takes an almost identical approach to Lincoln and slavery. Although Richards argues that Lincoln did not play the biggest role in the goals of antislavery and definitely did not support racial equality, he does admit that Lincoln did play an important role in America’s development during the civil war. As a result, this book falls into the anti-great emancipator school but withholds the harsher judgements about …show more content…
was lacking in some aspects but excelled in most. For example, a good aspect was that Richards questioned the actual people and factors that freed the slaves rather than adopting the overgeneralized view. This is a good question to ask considering the widespread ignorance surrounding the actual process of the 13th amendment. To answer this question, Richards meticulously analyzed evidence from several historical periods to support his argument. In addition, the bulk of his sources were primary sources. In this regard, he successfully supported his argument through his use of credible evidence. Richards does not present any alternative hypotheses because he focuses on strengthening his main argument throughout the book. Richards’s explanations utilized a variety of sources and used logical deduction. As a result, these tended to be believable and reasonable. Richards does not make many moral judgements but is slightly biased against Northern Democrats. He tends to portray them as devious and excessively aggressive against opinions that conflict their own
Franklin, J., Moss, A. Jr. From Slavery to Freedom. Seventh edition, McGraw Hill, Inc.: 1994.
The 13th Amendment to the constitution was made to give African American people declared that "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"(S.Banfield). This, to the African Americans, was such an amazing new law. It freed many slaves in the South and slaves in the North who weren’t freed already. It put an end to the harsh treatment and work with no pay that the men and women who were slaves had to deal with on a daily basis. This was something good that came from the 13th Amendment. But once they were on their own most African Americans had a very hard time. Before this Amendment was passed they were used to living in someone elses home and being fed by their family. They almost never had the skills needed to live on their own in the 19th Century.
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 economy, was a singularly terrible, unjustified conflict given the proven success in the 19th century of the peaceful end to slavery through the policy of compensated emancipation (p. 4). DiLorenzo accordingly notes that, “Between 1800 and 1860, dozens of countries, including the entire British Empire, ended slavery peacefully; only in the United States was war involved (p. 4). DiLorenzo documents that history’s claims that the abolition of slavery as the leading motive behind the Union’s aggression against the South is untrue. He states that Lincoln’s motives were economic and political and in no way altruistic. Lincoln did oppose slavery, but his opposition did not stem from any moral motive. He wished to preserve white labor, and to avoid artificial inflation of Southern representation in Congress under the three-fifths clause of the Constitution, under which every five slaves counted as three free persons for the purpose of allotting number of congressional seats.
Imagine that you are an escaped African slave. After years of being a slave you’ve finally done it, you escaped the terrors that is slavery. You are looking forward to the freedoms that you have heard are promised in the north. However, these “freedoms” are all what they were made out to be. Blacks in the north were to some extent free in the years before the Civil War. This can be shown by looking at four areas of society: political and judicial rights, social freedoms, education and job opportunities, and religious freedom.
The 13th amendment was adopted speedily in the aftermath of the Civil War, with the simple direct purpose of forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. The 13th Amendment took authority away from the states, so that no state could institute slavery, and it attempted to constitutional grant the natural right of liberty. Think that this amendment would suffice, Congressional Republicans pushed the amendment through. To counter the amendment, a series of laws called the Black Codes were enacted by the former Confederate states, which
...ll the Republican political leaders, two third of the majorities of the house and the senate approved and sent the senates to approved the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery. President Abraham Lincoln used his influences republican party leaders, and his campaign speech that he spoken from Springfield to Washington to persuasive and changed the South state’s mind. Lincoln wanted to end the civil neutral by stating that he was willing to conciliate the slaves’ states in the South, but that there will be no compromise that was acceptable of the expansion territory of the slavery.
“Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system, and hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds … relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, for success in my … efforts and solemnly pledging myself anew to the sacred cause, I subscribe myself” (Douglass 76). With these words, Frederick Douglass (c. 1817-1895), an emancipated slave with no formal education, ends one of the greatest pieces of propaganda of the 19th century America: that slavery is good for the slave. He writes his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, as an abolitionist tool to shape his northern audience’s view of southern slaveholders. Through personal anecdotes, Douglass draws an accurate picture of slave life. Simultaneously, he chooses these events for how they will affect the northern audience’s opinion of southern slaveholders (Quarles ii). By using the written word, Douglass targets educated northern whites because they were the only group capable of changing the status quo. Illiterate northern whites and free northern blacks could not vote, while white Southerners would not vote because they did not want change. For that reason, Douglass used his life story as an instrument to promote abolition among literate northern whites (vi).
Politically and socially blacks were outcasts in the southern states and the southern government officials tried every loophole they could possibly find to oppress them. The Thirteenth Amendment was simply a thorn in the side of southerners until
Ratifying the thirteenth amendment was the pinnacle of the reconstruction era, and would change the United States for the rest of history. "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." Before December 6 1865, slavery consumed all of America, enslaving millions of innocent men, women, and children, for no other reason than the color of their skin or their birth. The ratification of this amendment granted them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, inalienable rights
Primarily, America’s opulence initiated with Lincoln’s determination to preserve and to strengthen the moral cause of the Union, starting off with focusing on abolishing slavery. Initially, his “paramount object in this struggle [was] to save the Union, and [was] not either to save or to destroy slavery.” The institute of slavery was a controversy in America for decades. Although his intentions were never to radically demand immediate freedom for 4 million black slaves, his Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued during his third year fighting the Civil War, finally conveyed the annihilation of slavery. What really caused Lincoln to reverse his original thoughts regarding the emancipation of slaves was a calling for “an act of justice.” He felt that God called upon him to free the slaves, similarly to how Moses felt when God spoke to him through the burning bush to liberate the Jewish slaves in Egypt. Moreover, slavery, the state of an individual having absolute power over another individual’s life and liberty, was finally recognized as an evil concept according to Lincoln. The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation was not solely on freeing the slaves, bu...
The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...
As Abraham Lincoln was president “On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures.” President Lincoln was a big and a decisive part of ratifying the 13th Amendment.” (Our Documents). The passing of the 13th Amendment was one of the most influential Amendments passed in the U.S. ended slavery, but African Americans still did not have the same rights that white Americans did. With the help of the 16th president Abraham Lincoln the ratification of the 13th Amendment would not exist. After the passing of this document the African Americans did not have the same freedom the white Americans did but they had a lot of freedom. Without this document where would the United States be?
This story was set in the deep south were ownership of African Americans was no different than owning a mule. Demonstrates of how the Thirteenth Amendment was intended to free slaves and describes the abolitionist’s efforts. The freedom of African Americans was less a humanitarian act than an economic one. There was a battle between the North and South freed slaves from bondage but at a certain cost. While a few good men prophesied the African Americans were created equal by God’s hands, the movement to free African Americans gained momentum spirited by economic and technological innovations such as the export, import, railroad, finance, and the North’s desire for more caucasian immigrants to join America’s workforce to improve our evolving nation. The inspiration for world power that freed slaves and gave them initial victory of a vote with passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. A huge part of this story follows the evolution of the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment more acts for civil rights.
Many citizens in the United States were led to believe that after the Civil War, the United States and its’ territories had indeed freed all slaves from their masters but, what many did not see coming was a loophole in the 13th Amendment that would leave a major footprint in U.S history. 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". However, the key phrase in this amendment was “except as a punishment for crime”. Since slavery was illegal because of the 13th amendment, many individuals and large corporations found a new and legal method to continue
"We must not disturb slavery in the states where it exists, because the Constitution and the peace of the country both forbid us. We must not withhold an efficient fugitive slave law, because the constitution demands it. But we must, by a national policy, prevent the spread of slavery into new territories, or free states, because the constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does demand such prevention.” (Lincoln) Mr. Lincoln’s views were so polarizing that he finished with less than forty percent of the popular vote. However, do to the lack of unity in the Democratic Party; he still managed to triumph and successfully...