The Lincoln Administration Pursuit of Freedom
There are many ways to describe what freedom is; in fact Webster’s dictionary offers nine different explanations of what the word means. “A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference,” is one of the most ubiquitous definitions. There are many ways to describe freedom and American history has portrayed it in very contradictory manners. In the late 1700’s, it was very obvious that America’s forefathers sought freedom as they based their revolution on the principal of emancipation but it was only a short while later that the freedoms of others within the country were being inhibited by slavery. Slavery inhibits civil liberties and in a land of equal opportunity, such as America, needed to be removed. Freedom and slavery have always been closely related but the issues that surround the terms have been handled very differently by the leaders of the nation. Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the USA, is a key figure against the oppression of people and an activist in the struggle to remove slavery and gain freedom for all.
Freedom is an antonym of slavery. After years of fighting to gain independence and essentially freedom from the King of England, America became a slave endorsing entity. This era of American history is a bit of a paradox, why would people fight so hard for justice just to take away the freedoms of another people? In the United States, Slavery existed primarily in the southern states. In 1800, there were nearly 900,000 slaves in the U.S. only 40,000 of which were in the Northern states. It was in the south where large plantation owners bought people to perform grueling manual labor. These dark skinned people were literally worked to death on many occasions and rarely saw any form of retribution from their owners. Men, women and children alike had their civil liberties ripped from them at birth and were treated like misused animals for all of their lives. Many people believed that this treatment of African Americans was inhumane but sadly did not act to stop the brutal imprisonment.
Many of society’s earliest leaders “regarded slavery as evil and inconsistent with the principles of the Declaration of Independence.” However they hesitated to take political action to prohibit the enslaving of people because many southerners saw the ownership of slaves was...
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...tizens all within its borders. The suppression of one person’s rights while another is allowed to take advantage of those lost liberties no longer has a place in this world. Abraham Lincoln ensured an undivided country and abolished its reason for separation by reinstating the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln guaranteed freedom and justice to all of this country’s citizens as his forefathers who led the American Revolution had intended.
Works Cited:
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In the late 19th century African Americans were no longer slaves, but they were definitely not free. When we think of freedom today, we think of something totally different than what they endured in the late 19th century and early 20th century. For about 80 years, black southerners had to deal with these changes and hard times. Most would say that for those 80 years, it was worse than blacks being actual slaves. There are so many things that held down African Americans during this time. Some examples of this would be the involvement of the Jim Crow laws, not having the right to vote, and the lynching and peonage among African Americans.
One of the great questions Americans could ask of history is: How could a nation be founded upon freedom and liberty but enslave twenty percent of its citizens? Edmund S. Morgan attempts to answer this question in American Slavery, American Freedom. This is a magnificently researched book that sets out to cut to the root of this great topic, slavery and freedom. His thesis, how freedom came to be supported by slavery, a relationship of exact opposites, is one that many Americans continue to have trouble accepting. Morgan asserts that the answers to this hypocritical situation lie in Virginia since that state was the most influential and most populated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In the colonial era slavery was permissible by law in every colony. Blacks were 20% of the overall population of the 13 colonies and only 8% of them were free blacks (www.history.org). Colonists commonly used African slave labor despite the question of whether slavery was morally right. Life for blacks in the revolutionary period was one of slavery and discrimination. Only 8 percent of blacks were free [Edgar A Toppin. “Blacks in the American Revolution” (published essay, Virginia State University, 1976), p 1] and this so-called freedom merely meant that they could own and defend property. They weren’t allowed to mingle with whites and were wholly segregated.
Lincoln was a very smart lawyer and politician. During his “House Divided” speech he asked the question, “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half slave, and half free?" When he first asked this question, America was slowly gaining the knowledge and realizing that as a nation, it could not possibly exist as half-slave and half-free. It was either one way or the other. “Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral, but not simply on a practical level.” (Greenfield, 2009) Slave states and free states had significantly different and incompatible interests. In 1858, when Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech, he made people think about this question with views if what the end result in America must be.
It should be noted that the Declaration of Independence made it clear that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Although this progressive view was shared by many of the members of the Constitutional Convention, it is clear that the original text of the American Constitution is rather pro-slavery and up to a certain point protects the slave-owners. It is of utmost importance to note that the words slavery/slave are not used in the text of the Constitution.
After the American Revolution, slavery began to decrease in the North, just as it was becoming more popular in the South. By the turn of the century, seven of the most Northern states had abolished slavery. During this time, a surge of democratic reform swept the North to the West, and there were demands for political equality, economic and social advances for all Americans. Northerners said that slavery revoked the human right of being a free person and when new territories became available i...
In Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, freedom is described as the ability for one to enjoy the fruits of their own labor. It was considered a universal idea of society in America between 1790 and 1860. Many worked hard so they can create an easier and peaceful life for their family. Although this was the case for whites, it was completely the opposite for slaves and Indians. America was slowly if not already becoming a less free place for slaves and Indians due to white oppression over their kind. Slaves and Indians worked hard but were unable to enjoy their fruits of labor because of white oppression and westward expansion.
Post, D. G. (2001, 07 02). Temple Universtiy. Retrieved 07 07, 2010, from Words Fitly Spoken: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/slavery.PDF
From the birth of the United States of America, true freedom was never essential in the land of liberty. Throughout history America truly shows us this from the 1600’s to the 1800’s; Citizens had to fight for their God given rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Instead citizens in minorities saw a whole different side of America. Unfortunate citizens in minorities had to suffer in that era but after a long hard battle minorities began to receive their god given rights.
Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States. He only served 5 years, but was president in the worst period of American history. He did the unthinkable to many people because of the severity of the decision; he emancipated slaves in the United States. This caused him to be dubbed ‘The Great Emancipator’. The nickname he received is an accurate one because it is a major decision that shaped the future of America. This decision was long overdue and he made sure that the prosperity would not have to deal with the issue of slavery separating the government. Additionally, he was able to change the landscape of the war because the North had affected the South’s way of life. He was very bold for declaring that all slaves will be free, but it was for the improvement of America.
Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...
The Revolution had a contradictory impact on American notions of freedom, in terms of slavery. During the 18th century the understanding of freedom began to be known as a “universal entitlement, rather than a set of rights to a particular place or people” (Foner, 233). Thus, it was inevitable that questions about the status of slavery would arise.
The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...
The contradictions between slavery and freedom are very apparent throughout history. America started out with the intentions of becoming separate and equal. To become this kind of nation they needed a crop that would give them something to trade with the other countries. The most obvious choice was tobacco and to produce this demanding crop they used a lot of slave labor. Morgan states 'To a very large degree it may be said that Americans bought their independence with slave labor (122).' America was so obsessed with being free and equal it looks like they would go to any length to obtain it. Another example would be certain slave owners. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington all owned slaves. This is interesting especially with Jefferson who had a major role in republican liberty. Another contradictory point made by Morgan is how England which prides itself in the l...
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...