Lincoln Emancipated

Abraham Lincoln has long been revered by blacks and whites alike as the \u201cGreat Emancipator.\u201d In recent years, however, this image has come under assault by scholars who question LincolnAEs commitment to racial equality and who assert that he was in fact, as Frederick Douglass once noted, the \u201cwhite manAEs president.\u201d Such arguments challenging deep-seated assumptions about our nationAEs beloved leader demand serious investigation. What personal beliefs did Lincoln hold about the inherent differences or similarities between blacks and whites? How did his vision for race relations change as a result of the Civil War? What political, legal, and cultural circumstances prompted him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation? And in what ways have Americans chosen to remember LincolnAEs legacy? Does he truly deserve his fame as the \u201cGreat Emancipator?\u201d In this volume, seven historians attempt to answer these critical questions. Kenneth J. Winkle analyzes the racial climate of the early nineteenth-century Midwest in order to place LincolnAEs views in context. Kevin R. C. Gutzman discusses the influence of Thomas JeffersonAEs racial politics upon Lincoln; and James N. Leiker scrutinizes LincolnAEs attitudes toward Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics as well as toward blacks. Phillip S. Paludan and Brian Dirck describe LincolnAEs tortured deliberation over emancipation, while Dennis K. Boman uses Missouri as a case study of the presidentAEs delicate handling of this explosive issue. By tracing the changes in LincolnAEs proposals for the future of liberated slaves, Michael Vorenberg argues that, despite what many Americans today would consider limitations, Lincoln demonstrated a remarkable open-mindedness and capacity for growth. Allen C. Guelzo opens the volume with a thought-provoking foreword.