Abraham Lincoln: A Perfect American Hero

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“I agree that the negro is not my equal in many respects--certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread... which his own hands earn, he is my equal and the equal of every living man.” - Abraham Lincoln Lincoln was not a perfect american hero. But I would argue that for any man to emerge from a society so prejudiced at its core and be immaculate in his view of equality would be too much to hope for. The problem is our modern society has clouded our view of truth in history, not only in the case of Abraham Lincoln but in all aspects concerning our revered historical figures. We tend to dumb down the truth because we cannot accept that people are made up of both good and bad. Which seems odd because that sentiment should be something every single human being can relate to. Its evident that Lincoln had prejudices and faults, but that does not and should never demean his political genius as well as the irreplaceable role he…show more content…
they were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures on board.” How easy it would be to perceive these slaves as happy, being free and so accustomed to black slavery how simple it would have been for Lincoln to go his whole life without once thinking twice about the evils of slavery. Yet a man who once could look at a group of enslaved human beings and see nothing, grew to detest slavery and became the instrument through which it would see its demise. In 1864 he would be quoted saying this, “If slavery is not wrong nothing is wrong, I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel.” Demonstrating his human nature he had become so aware of the injustice that he could state it with such fervent zeal. He detested slavery, having said that it did not mean he thought blacks were equal to whites, or that they ever would

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