"Look to Lincoln's Interactions with Black Americans to" Topic

…Understand His Racial Attitudes

"Six weeks after Lincoln's death, Frederick Douglass described him as "emphatically the black man's president, the first chief executive "to show any respect for the rights of a black man, or to acknowledge that he had any rights the white man ought to respect," the first one to rise "above the prejudices of his times and country." Lincoln treated each African American "not as a patron, but as an equal." Speaking of his own experience in 1864 when the president summoned him to the White House to discuss public affairs, Douglass concluded: "In daring to admit, nay in daring to invite a Negro to an audience at the White House, Mr. Lincoln did that which he knew would be offensive to the crowd and excite their ribaldry. It was saying to the country, I am President of the black people as well as the white, and I mean to respect their rights and feelings as men and as citizens." Echoing Douglass, historian David Reynolds has recently deemed the sixteenth president a "radical antiracist" and a "leftist abolitionist who loathed racism."…"

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Armand

Lincoln's anti-slavery views are sometimes underestimated as his pragmatic political nature left him open to being taken out of context sometimes. A good reminder Armand.

No man is perfect (although some claim they are). Abraham Lincoln was in all respects a great man, a moral man, and a great statesman. He deserves to be honored to the end of time.

A votre service mon ami…

Armand

Lincoln was pro abolition no doubt but he was more concerned with preserving the union at any cost so if he had to keep slavery to keep the union in tact he would have done.

all heroes have a bit if their anatomy made of clay and we have to remember that to get a true perspective.

As I mentioned, no man is perfect. But such men as Lincoln, Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eisenhower, US Grant and others stand high as torchbearers of liberty and democracy in the worst of times. Today my bet is on Ukraine's Zelenskyy.

(smile)

Armand

I agree that Lincoln was a great man and a great president. But to describe him as "radical antiracist" and a "leftist abolitionist who loathed racism." is, I think, laughable. The author is attempting to usurp who Lincoln was for his own ends by ascribing modern motivations to a 19th Century man.

One thing I found funny was the use of quotes about Lincoln from black people working at the White House. These quotes clearly show that Lincoln was a kind man, well loved by the servants, and that he treated them well. The author uses these quotes to support his thesis that Lincoln was antiracist. I could find very similar quotes from black people about Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee but if I brought them up I'd be accused by some people of trying to whitwash their racism.

Glup!…

Armand