Words: 1107
A few months after Nancy death, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow with three children of her own. She was a strong and affectionate Woman with whom Abraham quickly bonded. Though both his parents were most likely illiterate, Sarah encouraged Abraham to read. Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors recalled how Abraham would walk for miles to borrow a book. Abraham Lincoln migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner.
It was here that Lincoln, working with the public, acquired social skills that made him popular with the locals. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. After the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1834 as a member Of the Whig Party. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery. It was around this time he decided to become a lawyer, teaching himself the law by reading Blackstone Commentaries on the Laws of England.
After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm. Abraham Lincoln served a single term in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1847-1849. In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, a high spirited, well-educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky family. Actions taken by Abraham uncoil to help abolish slavery Known as the Great Emancipator, Lincoln was a complicated figure who wrestled with his own views on the African American race.
Lincoln primary audience were white voters. Lincoln views on slavery, race equality, and African American colonization are often intermixed. During the 1 858 debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln expressed his contemporary view that he believed whites were superior to blacks. Lincoln stated he was against miscegenation and blacks to serve as jurors. While President, as he American Civil War progressed, Lincoln advocated or implemented anti- racist policies including the Emancipation Proclamation and limited suffrage for African Americans.
Former slave and leading abolitionist, Frederick Douglass once observed of Lincoln: “In his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin or of my unpopular color”. Douglas praised Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation; however, he stated that Lincoln “was pre- eminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. ” Although Lincoln believed that African Americans deserved to be free, he equality of race was not the primary focus of Lincoln presidency. Generations through changing times have interpreted independently Lincoln views on African Americans.
On the 22nd of September 1 862, United States of America President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of January 1, 1863. This did not mean people of color had suddenly become United States citizens that held equal rights to those held by Caucasians, Lincoln expressed his thoughts on it: ” think the authors of that table instrument (Declaration of Independence) intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects.
They did not mean to say that all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social capacity. ” Abraham Lincoln – Seventh and Last Joint Debate, Douglas/Lincoln, at Alton, Illinois, October 15, 1858. However, his Proclamation was radical enough that it was the basis for the American Civil War. Unfortunately, proclamations advocating equality, despite their best intentions, rarely, if ever, are obeyed to the letter of the law.
After 1863 people of color were still discriminated against by the Caucasian population, segregated by law, and often were the victims of barbaric criminal acts, which, because the criminals were White, went unpunished. The actions made by Abraham Lincoln in contributing to the end of slavery The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order Issued by united States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom Of slaves in the ten states then in rebellion, thus applying to 3. Million of the 4 million slaves in the U. S. At that time.
The Proclamation immediately freed 50,000 slaves, with nearly all the rest (of the 3. 1 million) freed as union armies advanced. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not itself outlaw slavery, and did not make the ex-slaves (called freedmen) citizens. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln announced that he would issue a formal emancipation of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. None returned, and the order, signed and issued January 1, 1 863, took effect except in locations where the Union had already mostly regained control.
The Proclamation made abolition a central goal of the war (in addition to reunion), outraged white Southerners who envisioned a race war, angered some Northern Democrats, energize anti- slavery forces, and weakened forces in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy. Slavery was made illegal everywhere in the U. S. By the Thirteenth Amendment, which took effect in December, 1865. As Lincoln had hoped, the Proclamation turned foreign popular opinion in favor of the Union by adding the ending of slavery as a goal of the war.
That shift ended the Confederacy’s hopes of gaining official recognition, particularly from the united Kingdom, which had abolished slavery. Prior to Lincoln decree, Britain’s actions had favored the Confederacy, especially in its provision of British-built warships such as the CSS Alabama and CSS Florida. Furthermore, the North’s determination to win at all costs was creating problems diplomatically. The Treat Affair of late 1 861 had caused severe tensions between the United States and Great Britain. For the Confederacy to receive official recognition by foreign powers would have been a further blow to the Union cause.
With the war now cast in terms of freedom against slavery, British or French support for the Confederacy would look like support for slavery, which both of these nations had abolished. As Henry Adams noted, “The Emancipation Proclamation has done more for us than all our former victories and all our diplomacy. ” In Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi hailed Lincoln as “the heir of the aspirations of John Brown”. On August 6, 1863 Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln: Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title Han any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure.