Read. Think. Comment.
This article sheds some light on Lincoln, slavery, and the Civil War. As always, thoughtful comments are welcome and will help your grade.
posted by Mr. Carlisle at 11:06 AM
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
About Me
- Name: Mr. Carlisle
- Location: Portland, Oregon, United States
I'm a native South Carolinian and I attained my undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of South Carolina. I taught fourth grade for two years in the Mississippi Delta and two years at an alternative high school in Western North Carolina. I have been at Tigard High School since the fall of 2003, where I teach U.S. History and Psychology.
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7 Comments:
I'll admit, this article suprised me. After all, I've definitely been holding on to a somewhat romanticized image of Mr. Lincoln being this really benevolent person who emancipated the slaves. I wouldn't have thought of Mr. Lincoln as a racist (Although-of course-this really stems from only knowing very basic information about the Civil War era and Mr. Lincoln himself.) Yet, that doesn't mean I can't accept this less "pretty" facet of Mr. Lincoln. It makes him human and that's pretty cool.
4:38 PM
Personally this article makes me think, well what if the abolitionists hadn't done all that they had to remove slavery, would it have gone away eventually still? Then it also makes me wonder, what if Lincoln hadn't been elected president, then would have the Civil War had to have happened to get rid of slavery? But I guess we will never know but I think when Ivy says that she had a romanticized image of Lincoln before this article, I have to think that many others have that view of Lincoln as well and if they saw this article their views maybe changed.
5:30 PM
In the history classes I've been in, historians have glorified and romanticized Lincoln, portraying him as the president who put an end to slavery. In learning about other abolitionists, and how much they've done, it is clear that Lincoln only meant to defeat the Confederacy in the Civil War, and by no means started the war to free the slaves. Ending slavery was not the most important thing to him. I agree with Hannah, it makes me wonder what would have happened if Lincoln was not elected, would the Civil War have happened?
6:56 PM
I read Uncle Tom's Cabin two years ago and it moved me greatly, so it was no wonder that the book provoked such response 150 years ago when readers knew the horrors that happened to Tom were happening to many of the four million people enslaved at that time. What shocked me was learning that there were racial tensions between Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was such an extreme, religiously motivated abolitionist, not just an average free-soil abolitionist, yet even he fell victim to the common hidden racism. The role of African Americans and abolitionists in eliminating slavery shows how much power ordinary citizens in this country have in changing the direction of the country. Lincoln should be remembered as one of the United States' most brilliant politicians foremost. He led the Civil War brilliantly, hampered by reticent generals, and controlled the chaos in the north over slavery and secession, even though he suspended many civil liberties in doing so.
7:13 PM
I'm surprised that this isn't openly discussed more frequently. Most people glorify Lincoln because of the information about him ending slavery. Many people are still unaware of the whole truth about him and slavery. But Lincoln's story is similar to Christopher Columbus; most people are unaware of the true facts about him, like how he didn't actually discover America. People glorify people because it's what we first learned and society likes to give one person complete recognition for major events.
7:38 PM
It amazes me that people still give Lincoln all of the credit for the freeing all of the slaves. His original plan was to keep slavery around and perserve the union but only later on did he decide to free the slaves and even when he did issue the Emancipation Proclimation it didn't free all slaves. Sure Lincoln deserves some credit for the freeing of the slaves but by no means does he deserve it all. The Abolitionists worked very hard to earn the freedom for slaves and there are certain Abolitionists that deserve a lot more credit than they recieve such as Harriet Beecher Stowe.
7:43 PM
It's sad but true that media changes things around to give a certain affect to the audience. Films are really just films that glorify what they want to glorify and leave out the rest. Forgetting other great contributors like the article mentioned, Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
12:30 AM
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