In this succinct study, Edna Greene Medford examines the ideas and
events that shaped President Lincoln's responses to slavery,
following the arc of his ideological development from the beginning
of the Civil War, when he aimed to pursue a course of
noninterference, to his championing of slavery's destruction before
the conflict ended. Throughout, Medford juxtaposes the president's
motivations for advocating freedom with the aspirations of African
Americans themselves, restoring African Americans to the center of
the story about the struggle for their own liberation. Lincoln and
African Americans, Medford argues, approached emancipation
differently, with the president moving slowly and cautiously in
order to save the Union while the enslaved and their supporters
pressed more urgently for an end to slavery. Despite the
differences, an undeclared partnership existed between the
president and slaves that led to both preservation of the Union and
freedom for those in bondage. Medford chronicles Lincoln's
transition from advocating gradual abolition to campaigning for
immediate emancipation for the majority of the enslaved, a change
effected by the military and by the efforts of African Americans.
The author argues that many players--including the abolitionists
and Radical Republicans, War Democrats, and black men and
women--participated in the drama through agitation, military
support of the Union, and destruction of the institution from
within. Medford also addresses differences in the interpretation of
freedom: Lincoln and most Americans defined it as the destruction
of slavery, but African Americans understood the term to involve
equality and full inclusion into American society. An epilogue
considers Lincoln's death, African American efforts to honor him,
and the president's legacy at home and abroad. Both enslaved and
free black people, Medford demonstrates, were fervent participants
in the emancipation effort, showing an eagerness to get on with the
business of freedom long before the president or the North did. By
including African American voices in the emancipation narrative,
this insightful volume offers a fresh and welcome perspective on
Lincoln's America.
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