In his views, Lincoln saw slavery as an unavoidable social evil that was essential to the economy . To the blacks, it was immoral and inhuman, but the Border States relied on the slave trade for their economic production. Abolishing slavery only meant altering the economic system in the slave Border States and this could only result in less support. Lincoln believed that slavery was destined to fade away with time but could not just be terminated abruptly. He advocated for a gradual termination of slavery but not a direct confrontation; first was the introduction of the Emancipation Proclamation, then the compensation of slave and finally colonization of the freed slave.
Unlike the Native Americans, they were viewed more as a tool rather than an individual since the beginning of the African slave trade. Their lives were devastated as families were split apart and their freedom was stripped away from them. Those who were enslaved soon used freedom petitions to rally to the cause of abolishing slavery, one in which revealed how they had “with other men a natural and unalienable right to that freedom which the great parent of the universe hath bestowed equally on all mankind” as they argued that it was unjust to judge people by their appearance. They believed, like white women, that every individual was given such rights as a human being as well. They believed that they were fellow brothers, but were instead ignored and harassed by white men for their own benefit.
Whatever his intent, this would have kept them enslaved to the whites of the South. Blacks were segregated and treated unfairly for many years to come by the whites of the South. Their rights were ignored by many white leaders; while attempting to appear as though they truly cared about the welfare of the blacks trying to become productive and honest citizens of The United States. In some ways he was right to proceed cautiously as it could have led to many deaths, but sometimes one must make a sacrifice to allow others to truly
Just like these two there were many people who did not even like that there was a war in the first place but there was really no choice. Lincoln at one point did not even feel that he was capable enough of completely getting rid of slavery because he knew that it would cause problems in the future. He knew that abolishing slavery would turn the north and south against each other even more than it already had. (Pederson, Estell, & Kenneth, 1994). Just because he did not immediately take advantage of his position, probably do what any other would do today, and abolish slavery does not mean he supported it.
After president Abraham Lincoln died and the failure of President Johnson, Congress tried to take responsibility of the plans to reconstruct the divided nation that they had before. The main point of reconstructing was to start and protect the citizenship rights of the freedmen. The Southerners were not happy about loosing their slaves and having rights equal to the slaves they used to own as property because of the freedmen’s. They did not want to receive the fact that the freedmen were now men, not just property and that their property was now their equal. The Southerners got up and were angry about the freedmen Congress that had to find a way to protect their rights.
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were never treated very humanely. The Whites were the dominant race while the African Americans suffered under their commands as slaves who were treated unequally. Because slavery was such a huge issue, it became the reason of the outbreak of the Civil War. The African American troops in the movie Glory fought with their lives in hopes of winning the war to achieve freedom. Their goal was to abolish slavery completely and prevent it from harming many people.
As James Weldon Johnson accounts in his chronicle, “Dairy of an Ex Colored Man” Johnson describes acts of hate and violence toward African Americans. Many thought Blacks inferior and urged they could not and will never become civilized; “you freed nigger and you gave him a ballot, but you couldn’t make a citizen out of him.”(75) Johnson lived first hand in a society Griffith wished to enforce and even proliferate. His testimony shows that what Griffith believed was the solution to a “black problem” was already in practice. But more than that, Johnson knew that this was not an issue of Black vs. White in the protection of a righteous civilization. He argued that “modern civilization hit ignorance of the masses through the means of popular education.
Instead of preaching that one day the blacks would have equality and preaching wrong, Booker T. Washington preached to them that being equal is not what it is all about. He did this so the blacks would not lose faith and eventually give their hopes up on being equal. They ended up focusing on themselves and their brothers and dealt with the system. They accepted themselves as blacks into this nation. In today's day and age for example, there are people who are still racist, people who don't accept blacks because of their color and culture, but today blacks understand that and accept it.
Shipler in his essay “Jefferson Is America and America Is Jefferson,” Jefferson represents the most powerful contradiction of American society, because his declaration of individual liberty showed the brilliance of his extraordinary mind but also he claims that black people are inferior. Shipler considers that Jefferson had a deep understanding but at the same time he was such an ignorant person about what was happen, at that time concerning liberty and slavery. Slavery was a contradictory subject in Jefferson’s life. Although he was a defender for individual freedom and at one point he was against of slavery in America, but he owned slaves throughout his life. He was a politician that would speak out about slavery but would still employ slaves for his own use.
Besides being just against slavery he was also fought for women’s rights. He thought that blacks should not be able to vote if the women could not either. Douglass believed that everyone’s input would be important, not just men. As the Civil War approached, Douglass felt that if the war was to end slavery then the black slaves should fight alongside the soldiers. When the war was over slavery was abolished but in the Presidential Election of 1864, Douglass did not support Lincoln because he felt that Lincoln was not enforcing that the blacks still could not vote, instead he supported John C. Fremont.