The road to emancipation - Lawyers, Guns & Money

The road to emancipation - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Manisha Sinha has a good piece for your Juneteenth reading: African Americans had demanded freedom from bondage as early as the American Revolution, and in the 30 years before the Civil War a strong interracial movement had called for the immediate abolition of slavery and for Black rights. Lincoln himself came under enormous pressure from abolitionists and radicals within his own party during the first two years of the war to act against slave…

Abraham Lincoln Wasn't Born an Abolitionist, He Became One

Robert A. Powell, Shutterstock, The UnPopulistAbraham Lincoln was not an original advocate of abolition. In fact we know that his journey to what he called “the central act of my administration, and the great event of the 19th century” was a relatively slow, though continuous, one. Emancipation was a complex process that involved the actions of the slaves, the Union Army, Congress, and the president. Historians have argued over the relative role…