When I think of Abraham Lincoln, one of the first things that come to mind is the Emancipation Proclamation and the fact that Lincoln played a huge role in abolishing slavery. However, while reading Chapter 9 of Zinn’s PHUS and watching the first part of The American Civil War video, I realized that abolishing slavery wasn’t all that Lincoln was concerned about. Of course, I understood that the Civil War was first started because of disputes between State rights vs. Federal rights, but I always believed Lincoln was all for making the war about slavery.
In the chapter I read and the video I watched, I learned that Lincoln’s motivations weren’t entirely driven by freeing the slaves. On the contrary, his main goal was to keep the Union together. Lincoln knew that if he was blunt about getting rid of slavery, he would lose a lot of support, so he simply played it safe and said that from now on, no more states could have slavery. I also found it interesting that the only reason Lincoln finally decided to drop the Emancipation Proclamation is because of the foreign support the Confederacy was gaining. Although I understand to a degree where Lincoln was coming from, I still find it sad that basic human rights and liberties have to be politicized.
I too find it disheartening that for so long and still to this day basic human rights and liberties are politicized. From the civil war, to the civil rights movement, to the me to movement, gay rights, etc… it seems that minority groups fighting for their basic rights is always turned into a political issue when in my mind it should be simple. How do we depolarize human rights issues? Can it be done?
I found it interesting to hear about how Lincoln had to hold back radical claims about slavery because he knew he would lose support from the whole Union. It’s said to know that he had to value political support more than preaching out radical policies to dismantle slavery.
I also found Lincoln’s intentions interesting because he was always depicted as such a hero in my history classes because of the Emancipation Proclamation. It was interesting to see that he had a political agenda to push and still asserted that the white race is the superior race.