In Lincoln Park, there is a statue of Lincoln freeing the slaves, which was financed by black freedmen who raised $17,000 in 1876. “Similar to many African Americans of my generation, I was raised with the belief that Lincoln detested slavery because he cared for the slaves,” states Gates, the Harvard professor, observing that blacks, from Booker T. Washington to Ralph Ellison, contributed even more than whites to establish Lincoln as “the American philosopher-king and patron saint of race relations.” The majority of blacks desired this conclusion to be supported by the evidence we have read, and Lincoln, devoid of racism, was desired by us. His piety towards that fact has been suppressed throughout generations. If his life had not commenced as a racist, it would have been amazing. Abraham Lincoln was born into a racist family in a racist region of our racist country during a racist era in our history.
“Auntie.” In the 1864 Truth Sojourner address, he was able to overcome prejudice almost entirely, even though his death marked the end of his efforts. He became less and less racist, as evidenced by his decision to stop telling minstrel jokes and using the racist term “nigger.” This shows that Lincoln started to take a position against racism. Some historians, particularly Lerone Bennett Jr., Editor of Ebony, have criticized Lincoln for not doing enough to address racism. However, other historians no longer give a blanket judgment on Lincoln’s stance on the subject of racism.
Some individuals of African descent held it, which is typically but not necessarily a prejudiced position. There is the belief that individuals of African descent should be kept separate from individuals of European descent, to the extent that it is legally and practically feasible. There is the belief that individuals of African descent are inferior to individuals of European descent in intellect and “civilization.” There is opposition to slavery, which could liberate individuals from racial prejudice. He carefully examines the evidence and discovers that there are three aspects to Lincoln’s views on race. Gates believes that this approach, which focuses on the extent of racism displayed by Lincoln at any given time, should be substituted with a qualitative inquiry: What types of racial prejudice are under consideration?
Gates separated the three main ideas, presenting each choice with concise openings by Donald Yacovone, in the edited book found here, all of Lincoln’s remarks on slavery are included after Gates’s extensive initial article. Occasionally supporting one another, occasionally conflicting with one another, these three perspectives competed alongside each other throughout Lincoln’s lifetime.
1.
Slavery.
Slavery is opposed because Lincoln believed that slavery is always wrong. The abolitionists themselves do not make it clear that they charge racism against anyone. Many abolitionists believed that blacks should be equal to whites without thinking that they should be held as property. Although Henry Adams was proud of his family’s record in opposing slavery, he believed that once freed, slaves should not be given political rights or the right to vote. He was a strong supporter of President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policies and a critic of the Fourteenth Amendments. Lincoln cannot be called nonracist because he opposed slavery.
In 1858, as he stated, the foremost (occasionally the only) form of equality for Lincoln is the equitable entitlement to the outcomes of individual efforts. Lincoln expressed that the injustice of slavery lies in the fact that it imposed on African Americans the burden of unpaid labor, with which individuals were “extracting sustenance by exploiting the hard work of others” in his Second Inaugural Address.
Certainly the negro is not our equal in color—perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal of every other man, white or black.
In 1860, Lincoln put the matter “starkly” in Hartford, stating that the right to ownership of one’s labor was so important that even the animal world found traces of it. Without controversy, God gave man the right to carry bread to his mouth and feed himself with his hands, as well as the right to receive bread in his mouth.
The ant, who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest, will furiously defend the fruit of his labor, against whatever robber assails him…[and] the most dumb and stupid slave that ever toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is wronged. [Emphasis in the original.]
In the next year, he will hire others for labor, and for this year, he himself will work. Another man, who labored in the “free states of America,” was at the heart of Lincoln’s vision. He was denied the right to work towards owning the means of production, but the slave was not only deprived of his immediate labor, but also of the products it produced.
Lincoln believed that sending freed black people to Liberia would enhance the economic advantage of white labor and limit their opportunities. In 1856, he stated that the territories should be open for white laborers to prevent them from becoming less competitive compared to slave owners who profited from the unpaid labor of slaves. Lincoln’s deep belief was that slavery should be condemned because it impinged on the rights of white laborers in a free market economy.
In 1876, Lincoln expressed that Frederick Douglass consistently argued against slavery, which violated the interests of white workers. Lincoln stated that in the United States, the white man is not equal to the white man in states where slavery exists. He further emphasized that slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person in the census, which eroded political equality and diminished economic equality for white workers. Slavery did not only affect the white workers economically, but it also diminished their political equality.
He was preëminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men…. He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery. His arguments in furtherance of this policy had their motive and mainspring in his patriotic devotion to the interests of his own race.2
He penned a letter to Mary Speed, describing the scene in which he famously witnessed a group of twelve enslaved individuals bound together on the ship while returning from a trip to the slave-owning Speed family in Kentucky in 1841. The excerpt commonly referenced to refute this notion fails to do so convincingly. Despite Lincoln’s consistent opposition to slavery, his disapproval was primarily rooted in pragmatic economic reasoning rather than a passionate outcry against the inhumane and oppressive nature of slavery.
They were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them, from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery [in the Deep South] where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting than any other where.
He draws his conclusion about slavery after describing the pains of slavery in the second step of his argument, emphasizing the original context.
Yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheerful and apparantly [ sic ] happy creatures on board. One, whose offence for which he had been sold was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost continually; and the others danced, sung, cracked jokes, and played various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,” or in other words, that He renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits the best, to be nothing better than tolerable. [Emphasis added.]
It diminishes and undermines the significance of slavery in this context. Lincoln, as a white father, would genuinely care for his daughter Jim, whom Huck realized with astonishment that Mark Twain portrayed as having a different perspective on the severity of racial issues. It is evident that God has intentionally created a completely contrasting situation.
In 1855, when Lincoln visited Speed’s home in Kentucky, he saw twelve chained blacks who were slaves. This visit made him realize the importance of abolishing slavery and he wrote about it to his friend Speed, who remained a close friend despite their contrasting views. Unlike the personal slave that Speed had, Lincoln believed in treating everyone equally and did not accept any services from his friend’s slave. He questioned the idea of paying for someone’s time and wondered what it would be like if they were all free. This experience further fueled Lincoln’s passion for evangelizing against slavery as he traveled through the South, meeting Quakers like John Woolworth.
Lincoln did not show a personal revulsion towards slavery, but rather, he was personally repelled by abolitionists in his 1852 eulogy to Clay Henry, the political hero. Sometimes.
Those who would shiver into fragments the Union of these States; tear to tatters its now venerated constitution; and even burn the last copy of the Bible, rather than slavery should continue a single hour, together with all their more halting sympathizers, have received, and are receiving their just execration…. [Emphasis added.]
The declaration that the doctrines of abolition tend to increase slavery’s evils was made by abolitionist societies, but fellow delegates, including Lincoln, serving in the Illinois legislature in 1837, did not go as far as to outlaw abolitionist societies. Equally critical were those who did not vote for him as president because he was a slaveholder, and those who did not vote for Clay because he was an abolitionist. Lincoln’s vote against the annexation of Texas was seen as a protest against slavery.
Lincoln admitted that he had distanced himself from his political career in Illinois or abolitionism, which ultimately doomed him. He did not seem reluctant to do this. He was always energetic in enforcing the Act Slave Fugitive. Lincoln took urgent steps to keep a similar movement from Illinois and believed that this could be the death blow for the Republicans. He assured Republicans that he would be responsible for any way in which this move could be seen as hopeless for the cause of Republicanism in Illinois. In 1854, Lincoln had said that he would give Southerners legislation to reclaim their fugitives.
Lincoln demonstrated a surprising tenderness towards slave owners by offering a system of change that would compensate for the inconveniences caused by the emancipation of slaves. He promised further subsidies to private and public entities in order to adequately compensate for the compensations owed to former slave owners, who would have their children emancipated as reasonable service until they reached adulthood. The value of the slaves in the market would be determined by a board of assessors, appointed by the owners, and payment would be provided in the form of market value. This plan applied to the states bordering the District of Columbia, as well as to Columbia itself, and it aimed to achieve emancipation gradually and voluntarily.
2.
Black Inferiority.
In 1862, even as late as when he thought he was the president, he believed that blacks in the Union army had little ability and were impractical. He began with a clear view that blacks were fundamentally different from whites and believed that they would be able to endure insufferable conditions and jolly be able to handle them, which whites would not. He thought that blacks were less sensitive to wrongs than whites and that Lincoln had been wrong to consider them.
I am not so sure we could do much with the blacks. If we were to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the rebels.
While debating in 1858, Stephen Douglas doubted that states had the power to declare negroes as citizens and added that if he had the power, he would oppose the exercise of it in the state of Illinois.
I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. [Emphasis added.]
Lincoln openly expressed his support for what he saw as the widespread racism within society when he spoke in 1854 at Peoria about the slaves.
Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery, at any rate; yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially, our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this ; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment, is not the sole question, if indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, can not be safely disregarded. We can not, then, make them equals. [Emphasis added.]
I previously mentioned one reason that Lincoln offered for excluding slaves from the territories was to decrease the likelihood of miscegenation.
Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought of the mixing blood by the white and black races: agreed for once—a thousand times agreed…. A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation but as an immediate separation is impossible the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas. [Emphasis in the original.]
He could write later, two months after. He was still using them to combat against. In January 1863, Lincoln called for freed slaves to serve in the army, not only in various positions, forts, and garrisons, but also in other places and stations. Charles Sumner gave Lincoln Livermore’s book, which was given to George Livermore when he established that black troops had been employed usefully by Washington during the Revolution, which changed Lincoln’s mind on the usefulness of blacks in the army.
The colored population is the great available and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi, would end the rebellion at once. And who doubts that we can present that sight, if we but take hold in earnest? [Emphasis in the original.]
Was it only after black individuals in military attire posed a threat of rebellion (and subsequent hangings of several for protesting the unfair compensation) that black individuals received the recognition they deserved? Black soldiers were only compensated half of what the lowest-ranking white soldiers received. It can be assumed that this decision was made to avoid upsetting white individuals by implying that black individuals were equal to them. Despite finally entrusting black individuals with firearms, Lincoln persisted in denying them equal pay with their white counterparts for a year and a half.
He clearly assumed that the majority of blacks were unintelligent. He did not specify how to establish a very intelligent class. In his last speech, he proposed that only very intelligent blacks and black veterans should be allowed to vote. But he still thought of the black warriors in his army as exceptions to the general race. He did not really know any educated blacks until he became acquainted with Frederick Douglass. Even until his death, he did not really know any educated blacks. Nonetheless, Professor Gates believes that there were “Noble Negroes” in the army – African American soldiers serving in the Union army – his great-uncle Clifford J.R. Gates was one of them.
3.
Colonization.
Lincoln admires Clay’s statement: “liberated African Americans would transport Christianity and civilization they had acquired in this country back to Africa.” This was the justification for Clay’s continued ownership of slaves, as he was only keeping them until they could be sent out of the nation. Lincoln specifically commends Clay’s advocacy for the resettlement of freed African Americans as his most significant contribution to political ideology. We cannot fully grasp the significance of this concept to Lincoln, which seems clearly impractical to us, unless we acknowledge that it was the most esteemed program of Lincoln’s most esteemed political role model, Henry Clay. The most evident evidence of Lincoln’s racism is his unwavering commitment to a plan that appears insignificant to us, but held great importance to him – the plan to relocate liberated slaves to Colombia, Haiti, or Liberia.
May it not be one of the great designs of the Ruler of the universe, (whose ways are often inscrutable by shortsighted morals,) thus to transform an original crime, into a signal blessing to that most unfortunate portion of the globe?
Lincoln passionately supports this aspiration: “May it truly come to fruition!”
Lincoln had stated his opposition to Stephen Douglas.
I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgment will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality.
In 1857, while speaking at Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln acknowledged the numerous challenges, both logistical and economic, associated with the transportation of large groups of individuals, including men, women, and children. He emphasized the importance of keeping them separated as much as possible, as cohabitation was not feasible.
Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and, at the same time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be. The children of Israel, to such numbers as to include four hundred thousand fighting men, went out of Egyptian bondage in a body.
Both ethnic groups experienced the challenges of being in close proximity to each other: In 1862, Lincoln invited a delegation of African American leaders to the White House and informed them that even after becoming president, he continued to diligently pursue his preferred plan.
But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I repeat, without the institution of Slavery and the colored race as a basis, the war could not have an existence.
Frederick Douglass held this comment against Lincoln even after his death, telling them that America owed it to the black race to make whatever sacrifices necessary for them to no longer suffer.
You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence.
In his last annual message to Congress in December 1864, Lincoln asked Congress to supply gunboats to Liberia in order to protect freed blacks there, despite his deep distrust of Frederick Douglass, whom he regarded highly after years of seeing him as a fundamental promoter of the ardent racism that lay behind Lincoln’s colonization scheme. Lincoln claimed that there was little evidence to support his belief that many free African Americans of descent favored emigration to Haiti or Liberia.
In the eloquent sentence he recorded, Douglass recalled the relationship between Lincoln and himself, highlighting how Lincoln’s patience was tested year after year. Finally, mutual esteem formed between Lincoln and Douglass, as rightly depicted in two recent books.
When he tarried long in the mountain; when he strangely told us that we were the cause of the war; when he still more strangely told us to leave the land in which we were born; when he refused to employ our arms in defense of the Union; when, after accepting our service as colored soldiers, he refused to retaliate our murder and torture as colored prisoners; when he told us he would save the Union if he could with slavery; when he revoked the Proclamation of Emancipation of General Frémont; when he refused, in the days of the inaction and defeat of the Army of the Potomac, to remove its popular commander who was more zealous in his efforts to protect slavery than to suppress rebellion; when we saw all this, and more, we were at times grieved, stunned, and greatly bewildered; but our hearts believed while they ached and bled.6
In relation to African Americans, Douglass subsequently provided the most impartial assessment of Lincoln’s achievements. However, he correctly conveyed to Lincoln, following his Second Inaugural Address, that the speech was “a solemn endeavor.”
Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.7
Gates has a deeper understanding. That Jefferson’s affirmation that “all men are created equal” was intended to encompass black individuals, contradicting historical evidence, Lincoln furthered the progress of the black community by expressing. However, Gates argues that Lincoln’s ultimate contribution was founded on a misconception. Similar to Douglass, Gates reluctantly commends him, suggesting that the great emancipator’s ultimate evaluation should be based on reality.
Thomas Jefferson most certainly was not thinking of black men and women when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and no amount of romantic historical wishful thinking can alter that fact.
Lincoln engaged in debates with Stephen Douglas. Jefferson was advocating for the Revolution. No females or African Americans exercised such a privilege. “The individual” mentioned in “all individuals are created equal” was homo politicus. Homo politicus was the individual capable of governing themselves. Women, enslaved individuals, African Americans, and other “lesser races,” children, and the mentally ill were excluded during the 18th century. Homines politici possess “the privilege of the people to modify or eliminate it [the system of government] and to establish a new government,” as stated in the Declaration.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote that document, he was the owner, and so continued until his death, of a large number of slaves. Did he intend to say in that Declaration that his negro slaves, which he held and treated as property, were created his equals by divine law, and that he was violating the law of God every day of his life by holding them as slaves? It must be borne in mind that when that Declaration was put forth, every one of the thirteen colonies were slaveholding colonies, and every man who signed that instrument represented a slaveholding constituency. Recollect, also, that no one of them emancipated his slaves, much less put them on an equality with himself, after he signed the Declaration. On the contrary, they all continued to hold their negroes as slaves during the Revolutionary War. Now, do you believe—are you willing to have it said—that every man who signed the Declaration of Independence declared the negro his equal, and then was hypocrite enough to continue to hold him as a slave in violation of what he believed to be the divine law?8
Thank you, Mr. Lincoln, for assuming that we should go forward with the idea that blacks are actually equals to whites, even though the Declaration of Independence did not explicitly say so. In some cases, these bad history has made good politics for us. The essence of the American political system is the coequal branches that act as “checks” on each other, restoring the original theory of “Anglo-Saxon freedom” that Jefferson adhered to. This theory combined elements of democracy, oligarchy, and monarchy, creating a “mixed constitution” based on the false theory of Roman government by Polybius. These are just a few examples of the creative misreadings in history that mainly affect us in a benign way. Yet, the most radical thing that Lincoln did was to apply Jefferson’s words to blacks. Now, most Americans think of Lincoln as the one who truly understood Jefferson’s words.