Why did Lincoln only advocate limiting slavery while campaigning for president in 1860, as opposed to abolishing slavery?
-Chris Gannon, Herndon High School, Herndon, VA
Because he did not believe in abolition as an immediate goal. He believed that slavery was wrong, but that the Union was more important than the issue of slavery. The task for him was how to nudge it to die out gradually. Simply put, the support of southern white people was far more important than the fate of southern black people. Also, on a practical level, he probably could not have won on an abolitionist platform.
Dr. James Grossman
The Newberry Library
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What was the relationship between Lincoln and Frederick Douglass like?
-8th Grade, Ascension School, Louisville, KY
Lincoln and Douglass only met 3 times. The first time was in the summer of 1863. Douglass came to the White House to ask Lincoln to equalize the pay between black and white soldiers. The second meeting was about a year later, when Lincoln invited Douglass to the W.H. to tell him that he (the president) wanted Douglass to help devise a plan that would get as many enslaved people out of the Confederacy as possible. Lincoln was concerned that a peace agreement would be made and that those enslaved people who had been promised freedom by the Emancipation Proclamation would be stranded behind the rebel lines. The plan never materialized because no peace agreement was made. The third time was when Douglass went to the White House to congratulate Lincoln on winning a second term. As a black man, Douglass was barred from entry, but someone told Lincoln that Douglass was at the door. Lincoln ordered that he be allowed in, and treated him cordially when he saw him. Douglass wrote later that Lincoln never treated him in any way that suggested he was inferior. When Lincoln was assassinated, Mrs. Lincoln gave Douglass one of her husband's canes.
Dr. Edna Greene Medford
Howard University
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What did the slaves on the Union side feel about the Emancipation Proclamation? What about the Confederates?
-Brent
Enslaved people on both sides of the war were overjoyed with the proclamation. Those in the Confederacy understood that they would not get their freedom until the Union troops arrived or until they made their way to the Union lines. But they did not care. They were delighted that the president was supporting their desire for freedom. Those on the Union side were just as happy. Although enslaved people in certain areas of Louisiana and Virginia and in Tennessee and the border states were not freed by the proclamation, they realized that their own freedom would not be far away. Douglass said, once slaves were free in Virginia, Maryland could not be far behind.
Dr. Edna Greene Medford
Howard University
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My students want to know if Lincoln owned slaves??? This is a debatable topic in my classroom.
-Civil War Class at Ilion High School, Ilion, NY
-Elizabeth T., Saint Joan of Arc, Indianapolis, IN
Lincoln never owned slaves.
Dr. Edna Greene Medford
Howard University
No, he never did. In addition, his father, Thomas Lincoln, never owned slaves and left Kentucky, according to his son, at least in part because he disliked slavery. Lincoln’s parents belonged to an anti-slavery Baptist church and he grew up opposed to slavery. His wife, Mary Todd, was raised in a slave-holding family, but she also came to oppose slavery; never owned them herself; and donated money to freed slaves during the Civil War.
Dr. Matthew Pinsker
Dickinson College
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