Abraham Lincoln, Abolitionist or Racist?

Chris Wendell

J. Berte

Composition II

Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln, Abolitionist or Racist?

Abraham Lincoln was an abolitionist and had a lengthy history of supporting the anti-slavery movement. One of Lincoln’s greatest achievements was his drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in the United States, making him known as the “Great Emancipator” (Stevenson). Even before he was elected the Sixteenth President of the United States in 1860, there had been much skepticism about the reasons why he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln signed the proclamation because he really wanted to free the slaves and contrary to what some historians believe, was not a political move to gain support for his re-election in 1864.

In the article “Across the Great Divide” Lincoln is quoted stating that “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember a time when I did not so think and feel” (Stauffer). Lincoln was known to be a great speaker and in many of those speeches, talked about how slavery was “a violation of the founding principles of the United States as enunciated by the Declaration of Independence” (Foner 17). Lincoln publicly debated against Stephen A. Douglas who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act at the 1854 Illinois State fair arguing that no man should rule another without consent (Stevenson). Lincoln was eager to “join the anti-slavery Republican Party, which was formed in 1854 by a group of Whig, Free soil, and Know-Nothing parties, as well as anti-slavery Democrats” (Stevenson).

Abraham believed that the Union was truly fighting to save the Republican government which would help freedom prevail and end slavery (Wilentz 26). The South saw Lincoln as a dangerous abolitionist because of his commitment to ending slavery and because of this, and his election as President of the United States, led to the succession of the southern states from the union and the start of the Civil War (Foner 18). Lincoln knew that...