Preview

Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
500 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream
This video was an interview based on Lerone Bennett Jr.’s book Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream. This interview was conducted because the book caused controversy. It supposedly detested everything that anyone was ever taught about Abraham Lincoln and his presidency. Bennett says that his book’s main points were that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free blacks, Lincoln was racist, he wanted to deport blacks, and that Lincoln was the total opposite to what all historians portray him to be. In this paper, I will tell what I learned, and my point of view.
From personal experience, what is taught in school about Abraham Lincoln is that he freed the slaves, loved blacks, and that white people hated him for that. In the back of my mind I always believed that Lincoln was never for blacks. I was under the impression that he only freed slaves to prove …show more content…
If Lincoln loved blacks as much as history portrays, why did he have slaves? This is why it was a belief of mine that Lincoln only wanted to prove his power to the Confederacy. At any given moment, if Lincoln was “anti-slavery”, he could have fought to free those slaves. Instead, he was two faced, and had certain slaves freed only to send them away to foreign land. I now view Lincoln’s presidency similar to the way John Adams viewed the Gag Rule, which forbade slavery topics. It was based solely on the right to freedom of speech (First Amendment). As mentioned in class today, just because Adams repealed the Gag Rule did not mean that he was not racist. As for Lincoln, just because he participated in the freeing of slaves, does not mean that he wasn’t a racist. It could be possible that he wanted an all-white nation, but his plan to make the country all white just backfired and ended up with a country full of free blacks and upset white
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Summary 10 Stephen B. Oates, Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation
    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary 10 Stephen B. Oates, Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation

    He comes to us, too, as the Great Emancipator who headed the North off to Civil War to free the slaves and subsequently offered his kindred Southerners a delicate and forgetting hand. Lincoln was the man who headed the slaves into the common war and eventually liberated them from the Southerners, whom he'd lended a hand after the war. This is the generally speaking perspective of Lincoln, which isn't fully accurate, and is demonstrated to not be totally right however history, demonstrating that he didn't have totally intensive and reliable perspectives and didn't dependably help nullification. He acknowledged how wrong it was that subjection ought to exist whatsoever in a self announced free and edified republic. Lincoln's emotions of the Declaration of Independence, which inside and out say that all men are made equivalent, disaffirm his nations agreeableness and shared traits around bondage. This at last pushes Lincoln to change his perspectives on subjection, instead of supporting it before and all around the war, while it was vital. Kansas-Nebraska Act -The enactment toppled the old Missouri Compromise line, which rejected subjection from the limitless northern zone of the old Louisiana Purchase domain. The demonstration then built another recipe for managing subjection in the national grounds: now Congress might stay out of the matter, and the individuals of every region might choose whether to hold or bandit the organization. This gesture toppled the Missouri Compromise which had awhile ago avoided region in the Louisiana Purchase domain and besides counteracted Congress from mediating, permitting the individuals to take care of their own issues with prominent power. This gesture advanced Congress' freedom to its nation and made it recoil and provided for it no force in the bargains and contentions its nation was managing and additionally left open a yawning opening of chance for professional bondage control. At that point in 1857 came the notorious Dred…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why Did Lincoln's Inaugural Address Dbq
    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why Did Lincoln's Inaugural Address Dbq

    Lincoln’s four speeches seem to share the same theme for the most part, aside from one. The speeches performed in October 1854, July 1858 and October 1858 all share the same message, expressing the main points being that all men are created equal, all men deserve a voice in the government, slaves and colored people are entitled to inalienable rights mentioned in the constitution, and that enslaving a human being in an infringement of the constitution. These are the values that we remember Lincoln for and it seems that these were his main principles that he represented for his entire political career. Despite this, his speech in September 1858 changes his points and themes entirely. He goes on to say that colored people are simply inferior to…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln-Emancipation Proclamation vs. Previous Quotes Essay Example
    • 1015 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln-Emancipation Proclamation vs. Previous Quotes Essay Example

    After reading this quote, how can one think of Abraham Lincoln as the great man he is said to be? It has become very clear that Lincoln was not thinking of blacks as people when he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. He was thinking of what was right in the eyes of others. He was under pressure to do what the majority of the country wanted, and to do what seemed right in the eyes of the more developed super powers of the eastern hemisphere, like England. What Lincoln really wanted was what was extrinsicly morally right. Not what was necessarily best for the people of his country.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How Did Lincoln Make Good Decisions
    • 162 Words
    • 1 Page

    How Did Lincoln Make Good Decisions

    This declared that all slaves in the United States would be free. Abraham Lincoln was a man that was loved by many. Many people of the North loved the man and looked up to him because they believed he made good decisions, while also wanting everything to be right for everyone. Many slaves of the South liked Abraham Lincoln…

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Alexander Hamilton Economic Genius Essay
    • 2730 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Alexander Hamilton Economic Genius Essay

    He boldly claimed that Lincoln stated over and over that he was opposed to racial equality. “Lincoln also said that he was not and never had been in favor of making voters and jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people” This was quite the strong and bold statement to make about our 16th and arguably best president we as a nation have ever had. DiLorenzo says that Abe also defended slave-owners rights to own their “property”. According to DiLorenzo, “on the topic of emancipation, Lincoln said, free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this… We cannot, then, make them…

    • 2730 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Did Abraham Lincoln's Use Of Honesty
    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Did Abraham Lincoln's Use Of Honesty

    Source B states that Lincoln “challenged the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which was essentially a pro-slavery bill… Ultimately he lost the nomination as its Vice Presidential candidate in 1856. However, he continued his campaigning against slavery.” This citation shows how though Lincoln lost all hope of getting power to stop slavery, he still encouraged the fight against slavery. During Abraham Lincoln’s youth, he strived to understand the talk of politics and what they are Source C depicts, “As a boy he listened to his father and friends talk about the issues of the day, and then worked the idea in his mind until he understood it… he would repeat things over and over until it was fixed in his mind.” Abraham Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union even though he knew other people disagreed with him. “He put in long hours attending to the countless details of running the country, including spending the entire night, sometimes, at the telegraph office, waiting for the latest news from his generals.” Source C portrays. Abraham Lincoln’s success shows us that determination leads to…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator Essay Example
    • 2258 Words
    • 65 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator Essay Example

    Abraham Lincoln is known as "The Great Emancipator" who freed the slaves. Yet in the early part of his career and even in the early stages of his presidency, Lincoln had no objection to slavery where it already existed, namely, in the Southern states. As a savvy politician, he always wanted to maintain the union, and he would use any device to keep the country together. However, his views on slavery evolved during his presidency, and the personal opposition towards slavery that he claimed he always had began to show through in his policy. As Lincoln noted in 1864, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel" (Lorence 306). Despite such strongly worded beliefs, Lincoln policies towards slavery often shifted for the sake of political expedience. For example, he pledged that states would be compensated for their loss of property as a result of emancipation to keep the border states from seceding. Still, by 1862 Lincoln had become firm in his convictions that slavery must be abolished. He even pressed for a constitutional amendment to ensure freedom to all the slaves. Lincoln espoused strong anti-slavery views, but he often put what he viewed as the good of the country ahead of the cause. Despite many detours along the way, he proved himself to be "The Great Emancipator." As a self-made politician from humble origins, Lincoln struggled in his early political life to define his identity. He described his childhood as "The short and simple annals of the poor. That's my life, and that's all you or any one else can make of it" (Oates 4). Lincoln felt extremely embarrassed about his background and worked his entire life to overcome the limitations he faced. He made himself a "literate and professional man who commanded the respect of his colleagues" (Oates 4). It is difficult to assess Lincoln's early views on slavery and race because they were constantly changing in an effort to achieve such…

    • 2258 Words
    • 65 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Hesitant Emancipator- Lincoln
    • 2916 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Hesitant Emancipator- Lincoln

    Never boring: simple words that describe the simple life of one of the greatest American Heroes of all time. Over the years we have come to understand the Great Emancipator’s struggles and his determination to push for a better future for his nation. In the blink of war, Lincoln came to the nation’s rescue. But was Lincoln really the Great Emancipator? Was Lincoln actually opposed to the slavery movement? Or did he not consider the blacks to be an equal race? Did he make an active effort to free the slaves? Or was the emancipation a never Lincoln’s priority? In my opinion, although freeing the slaves was never Lincoln’s top priority during his tenure as president, Lincoln was sympathetic towards them. His main issue was the war and the probability of the union getting split into two. I believe that Lincoln may not have always seen the black race as equals and that the emancipation came about as a by-product of the Union getting saved.…

    • 2916 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Slavery In The Gettysburg Address
    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Slavery In The Gettysburg Address

    Abraham Lincoln’s star shined when his administration took place during the Civil War proving excellency in both politically and rhetorically. From that war the 16th president got his most famous nick name as the Great Emancipator that dwells between Americans till the present day. However, history doesn’t say quit the same about the complete representation of Abraham Lincoln’s attitude towards the war and even the issue of slavery. Such a title proposes an acceptance that the civil war was a war for abolishing slavery and freeing the slaves under the lead of a free man who is motivated by the moral code of equality between blacks and whites. The sentiment about slavery was totally different than today’s. Slaves were private property and not even considered as human beings who have lost rights as Americans. Actually, slaves were a joker in the pack to both Northerners and Southerners. Saying all this make the slavery issue seems the cover of the civil war. Therefore, the goal of this chapter’s second section is to examine whether slavery was used only as a front image to fulfil a higher aim and securing the country from the danger that disturbed it with the threat of dissolving the union.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Abraham Lincoln Be Abolished
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Did Abraham Lincoln Be Abolished

    Lincoln believed that slavery was insufferable and intolerable, and that Blacks should have their natural rights like the Whites and suggested to relocate the Black in order to gain their freedom.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln The Great Emancipator Analysis
    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln The Great Emancipator Analysis

    “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.¨ -Abraham Lincoln. This is an ironic quote from Lincoln. When he said this he himself had proven you could fool people some of the time. He could not fool us. Abraham Lincoln tried to fool us by making us think that he actually tried to free slaves by using the Emancipation Proclamation to further increase his popularity.In the text 5 Things You May Not Know About Lincoln,Slavery And Emancipation it says ¨Lincoln presented more clearly than ever his moral,legal and economic opposition to slavery¨This Great Emancipator” isn't very great. Abraham Lincoln was a great president, but he doesn't deserve the name the “Great Emancipator”…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address
    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address

    Abraham Lincoln challenged congress and believed that all humans were born with natural rights. He was key figure in ending slavery and making all races equal. One of the most important things he did as president was abolish slavery with the emancipation proclamation. He was influential in changing the racial and political outlook on Americans and life for Americans.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Lincoln and the Abolitionists
    • 5760 Words
    • 24 Pages

    Lincoln and the Abolitionists

    One of the ironies of the Civil War era and the end of slavery in the United States has always been that the man who played the role of the Great Emancipator was so hugely mistrusted and so energetically vilified by the party of abolition. Abraham Lincoln, whatever his larger reputation as the liberator of two million black slaves, has never entirely shaken off the imputation that he was something of a half-heart about it. "There is a counter-legend of Lincoln," acknowledges historian Stephen B. Oates, "one shared ironically enough by many white southerners and certain black Americans of our time" who are convinced that Lincoln never intended to abolish slavery--that he "was a bigot...a white racist who championed segregation, opposed civil and political rights for black people" and "wanted them all thrown out of the country." That reputation is still linked to the 19th-century denunciations of Lincoln issued by the abolitionist vanguard.…

    • 5760 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Real Lincoln
    • 2600 Words
    • 11 Pages

    The Real Lincoln

    The biography The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo gives readers a whole new perspective about Lincoln that they never had before. His meticulous research, passionate imagery, and skillful writing techniques, all are able to bring knowledge to the reader’s minds about our sixteenth president that we were never aware of before. Lincoln was always affiliated with the topics of equality, ending slavery, social fairness, and much alike, but the quotes stated by politician/president through out the biography have twisted these perceptions to ones that relate to tyrannical, selfish, and deceitful. Lincoln was only human, and also a politician, so dishonesty, fraudulent actions must come with the package, just likes any other politic. Growing up I have taken numerous amounts of History classes; all have taught me one thing: Lincoln was an honorable man of history; but after being captivated by DiLorenzo and his findings, my prior perception of Lincoln has been extremely altered.…

    • 2600 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln the Greatest President Ever
    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln the Greatest President Ever

    Many historians question Lincoln’s motives for entering the civil war. While Lincoln states that it was in order to preserve the union some historians believe that he was hoping to end slavery upon victory. However, it doesn’t matter what his motives were because when it comes down to it slavery was ended because of him. He issued the emancipation proclamation that abolished slavery for good. This Act illustrates his courage because he had the gall to do the moral and proper thing against all odds.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics