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Lincoln on Race and Slavery

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In this bicentennial year of Abraham Lincoln's birth, there has been a flood of new books about him. I suspect that Henry Gates's "Lincoln on Race & Slavery" may turn out to be the one volume among that pile which will prove the most important in understanding the most important American figure of the mid-Nineteenth century and his relationship of the most important question of mid-Nineteenth century America.

Gates's approach is dramatically straight-forward. He presents, in chronological order, all of Lincoln's major public and private declarations (speeches, letters, etc., dating from the 1830s until a few days before his death in 1865) upon the separate but related threads of slavery, race, and black colonization (the movement aimed at relocating blacks to colonies in Africa or Latin America to avoid the inevitable complications and frictions arising from free blacks and whites living side by side in America). Gates introduces each statement with a lucid explanation of the context for Lincoln's words.

The picture which emerges is more complex and subtle than either the hagiographic myopia that often presents Lincoln as a flawless secular saint or ill-natured vitriol that condemns Lincoln as a racist who fails to meet standards of the late Twentieth or early Twenty-first centuries. Gates ably demonstates that we must view Lincoln as a man in transition over decades of public life, with opinions and actions evolving with time. Although Lincoln abhorred slavery from the beginning, actions he undertook in the midst of civil war to suppress it were beyond his imaginings as a political candidate in the 1850s. A man who declared himself opposed to the idea of black citizenship and voting in the 1850s came to advocate exactly that idea, at least for black veterans and the "very intelligent", by the time of his death. While Lincoln fervently defended blacks' equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he never openly embraced the notion that in general blacks were fully equal to whites in ability. Gates shows that we must judge Lincoln in his own Nineteenth-century context to genuinely appreciate what Lincoln accomplished.

Prof. Gates's book is selective and limited. It does not fully represent the historical Lincoln. It just basically rehashes, and does not question, the orthodoxy, in some quarters, that Lincoln was a white supremacist and did not sincerely believe in freedom for the slave, and equality. This view would deny Lincoln his rightful place in the struggle for freedom and equality. Lincoln's claim to being the Great Emancipator lies not just with his Emancipation Proclamation, but also with the 13th Amendment, which he insisted on & sheparded through Congress. Those who feel Lincoln was insincere about freedom and equality would do well to read LaWanda Cox's Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study in Presidential Leadership, Richard Striner's Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle To End Slavery, and Harry Jaffa's Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, as well as Allen Guelzo's Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America. Lincoln felt that politics was the art of the possible. His political artistry included an acute knowledge of public opinion(and prejudices), a finely-honed sense of timing, and political discretion. Lincoln never retreated from emancipation once it was decided upon, just as he never affirmed black inferiority to be inherent. During his debates with Stephen Douglas he never said that he would never(in future) support equality. He didn't put stock in physical differences. In a well-known private memoranda he mused how anyone could be enslaved if the criterion was to have darker skin, or lesser intellect, because everyone was lighter or darker, or of varing degrees of smartness. In Chicago, in July 1858, he implored people to "discard" all their "quibbling" about supposed inferiority, and unite around the equality of the Declaration of Independence. However, a race-baiting Stephen Douglas forced him to subsequently in those debates down-play the full implications of his anti-slavery position. Again, he was a politician seeking an anti-slavery victory in a racist state[Illinois]. But, during his presidency he approved of bills abolishing segregation on horse-drawn streetcars in D.C., for equal pay for black troops, for black witnesses in federal courts, for equal penalties for the same crimes, for the Freedmen's Bureau. He supported education for the freedmen. He had African-Americans picnic on the White House lawn, bowed publicly to a black gentleman in Richmond, welcomed(for the first time) an ambassador from Haiti, and met African-American leaders in the White House for discussions. Any colonization was to be voluntary and was later dropped, whites and blacks having to "live out of the old relation and into the new." Sojourner Truth said that she had never been treated with more "kindness and cordiality" by anyone. Lincoln called for the vote for educated blacks and soldiers[a first step]. John Wilkes Booth was in the audience, and told a companion that that meant "N-- citizenship" and vowed it would be Lincoln's last speech. He was assassinated 3 days later. Frederick Douglass noted Lincoln's "entire freedom from popular prejudice against the colored race." James Oakes book gives readers a new angle from which to view these critical figures in the struggle for freedom and equality.

Gates depiction of Abraham Lincoln is in many ways confusing and awkward. Most of this confusion however originates from my own personal views on Lincoln. Gates presents a Lincoln that most are familiar with, but at the same time, the book gives off undertones of a very flawed public figure. Gates presents Lincoln as a man that is going through constant transitions in his life. Gates depicts Lincoln's opinions and actions as evolving throughout the course of his presidency. Gates concludes that Lincoln adapted to the situations happening around him rather than going against them. Aside from all of the stuff we already know about Lincoln, the collection of A. Lincoln's letters to colleagues, old friends and others of the sort are simply marvelous. The letters in and of themselves are simplistic and kind of boring. However, if you look past the text, you can see the thought process of the great Lincoln. The letters gives the reader a unique insight that makes reading Gates book a successful treasure hunt filled with gold. The letters Lincoln writes are not to be hurried through in order to get to the meat of the work. The letters are the meat of the work. The reason why the letters are so important are for the simple reason that they are usually written for one other person to read rather than a written speech (also included throughout the text), which is intended towards a wider audience. In one of the letters Lincoln writes to Joshua F. Speed, an old friend of his, "I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet." It would appear that Lincoln was perhaps being racist, but in reality he was not. His references to Negro slaves as "creatures" when writing to an old friend of his, showcases his adaptability to the situations. Lincoln sympathizes with his friend in order to have him lower his guard. By applying this technique, Speed allows the rest of the letter to penetrate simply because Lincoln shares a common attitude towards slaves. The letters definitely provide a window into Lincoln's own psychology and thought process. The more letters one reads, the larger the window becomes. The illustrations provided also provide a look and feel for the era of Lincoln. These pieces of art make this particular viewing window a lot larger. Through these sometimes complex drawings, we can better pinpoint what Lincoln experienced throughout his time as president. There's a gory illustration titled "forcing slavery down the throat of a freesoiler," which, literally shows a man's mouth being pried open, with a `then' slave jumping into it as if it were a swimming pool.

In a way, Gates book recreates a Lincoln's time period in a straightforward manner. This is particularly important simply because it is nearly impossible to properly judge or criticize Lincoln from a 21st century perspective. Immersing oneself into the text gives the reader the opportunity to realize that Lincoln was human. Historians tend to glorify Lincoln as this god-like man. In actuality, this legend that has been passed on through generations is only partially true. While Lincoln did have a natural inclination to free the slaves from the cotton states, we can see that he was also simply doing his job. Fittingly so, he did not want to let himself or those around him down. Constantly struggling to mediate different opinions until it finally comes down to secede or not to secede.


I particularly liked this book. I will say that it is better used as a personal reference guide to Lincoln and his psychology because of the various letters and speeches included. The reader can make formulate their own opinions on Lincoln rather than being influenced by the majority of Lincoln fanatics.

Abraham Lincoln was a great man, but he was not free from the dents of his own personal life and struggles.

This is a terrific read. Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. reprints 70 of Lincoln's best speeches, writings, and addresses on the subject of slavery, race, the possibility of black suffrage in the post-war period,etc... Some of the addresses, like the First Inauguaration are well known; some like his private messages to his pro-slavery friend Joshua Speed are not. But all of them portray a man deeply ambiguous about race relations and the future of black Americans. Lincoln writes and speaks (at least to me) at such a high intellectual level that I found it enjoyable to read his thoughts through almost 30 years of politics. (I believe the first address of the book was in 1838; the last speech was his opinion on the postbellum Louisiana Constitution in April 1865).

Professor Gates starts this outstanding book out with a 65 page introduction, leaning heavily on black activists such as Frederick Douglass and William DuBois. Their views on Lincoln are complex; they see him as a great, but flawed, man and leader. Most readers will finish this book with a similiar view of Lincoln. His thoughts on race are profound, but far from perfect. I highly recommend this book to Lincoln fans and critics alike.

Interesting just to see what people s/a the author DO. But it's the standard line on Lincoln taught to high school kids, which is best how this is used. For more depth on Lincoln go elsewhere, I think. The other reviewers might well be his friends.