Lincoln:The Racist Emancipator?

Before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863), he made one final attempt to meet with African-American leaders and ministers (August 1862) to persuade them to go back to their communities and convince the people that colonization was in their best interest:

"Even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race ... The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but on this broad continent, not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Go where you are treated the best, and the ban is still upon you...we look to our condition, owing to the existence of the two races on this continent. I need not recount to you the effects upon white men growing out of the institution of slavery. I believe in its general evil effects on the white race...See our present condition -- the country engaged in war! -- our white men cutting one another's throats, none knowing how far it will extend; and then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I repeat, without the institution of slavery, and the colored race as a basis, the war would not have an existence."

 

 

 

When asked "what did Abraham Lincoln do?" most Americans would likely respond..."he freed the slaves!"  This oversimplified answer (that most of us accept) allows us to "deify" Lincoln and find a hero worthy of our "national shrine and mythology". 

Keep in mind...the Emancipation Proclamation had a lot of "fine print" that actually freed a small percentage of slaves "under Union control" and kept a large percentage of slaves in bondage "in the border states and in over 50 counties "not in rebellion against the United States."

Lincoln's true "racist" beliefs:

That slaves should be deported through a system of gradual abolition and colonization.
That this would help protect and create jobs for poor whites (cheap labor vs. free labor).
That the Civil War was a "white man's war" fought to "save the Union".
That the Civil War was the slaves fault...can't they see what they've done to white men?
That slavery was wrong...but, they should never experience political or social equality.
That the "Emancipation Proclamation" was a temporary, wartime act that had no real legal basis.

So why did President Lincoln "free the slaves"?

* Political Necessity- he was being attacked by anti-slavery Radical Republicans for his moderate position on slavery/ black troops and threatened with being removed as their presidential candidate in 1864.

Thaddeus Stevens (a Radical Republican) commented in 1863 that Lincoln was a "dead card" in the Republicans political deck.  He also quipped (as Lincoln went to deliver his now famous "Gettysburg Address") that Lincoln was like "the dead going to eulogize the dead!"

* Military Necessity- the Union Army needed troops. What could be better than thousands of highly-motivated fresh troops?

Freedmen's Monument: Washington D.C.

Dedicated-April 14, 1876

 

 

The closest truth on Abraham Lincoln came from a Frederick Douglass speech delivered at the dedication of The Freedmen's Monument:

 

"It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.  He was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men."