Was Abraham Lincoln a White Supremacist?

 

Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States. He is most well-known for abolishing slavery and is considered a hero who fought for the freedom of slaves. This resulted in his assassination by a confederate loyalist. His death was mourned as "the darkest hour in history", with around 7 million people mourning his funeral train when it made the 13-day journey to Springfield, Illinois. However, when we look back at his actions from a modern perspective, he might not seem to be such an advocate of human rights and equality after all.

North and South America were on rough terms with their political differences, especially about slavery. While the Unions (North) disagreed with slavery, it was the main asset and source of income for the Confederates (South). When Lincoln took office in 1861, he had the ultimate goal of uniting the North and the South. In his famous speech, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It was his opinion that the country must choose to either support or abolish slavery.

In the early period of the civil war, I think Lincoln took a more passive aggressive stance towards the issue of slavery. While Lincoln disagreed with slavery, he wasn't sure about what to do with the slaves if they were emancipated. He thought about just sending them back to their native country but decided against it because they might not be able to survive there. However, he was also conflicted about the slaves’ status and role in society if they were to remain in the US.

Finally, Lincoln was forced to make a decision when the war was going badly for the Union. A sure way for them to win was to destroy the South's main economic centre, which was slavery. This pushed Lincoln to sign the 13th amendment, making it illegal to own slave and punishable by law. Most of the freed slaves joined the Union Army and this helped defeat the Confederate. We can see that Lincoln’s grand action to abolish slavery was based on a very tactical decision to win the war.

Some modern historian considered Lincoln racist and a white supremacist. They based this on his indecisiveness to immediately abolish slavery and his belief that black people cannot be equal to white people. In his own words: ” What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this;”

Lincoln's words are straight down racist and they might sound like something a racist person like Trump might say. That means he doesn't deserve to be called as one of the greatest president of America. However, we should also consider the time period. Human rights for black people have improved so much in the 21st century, while there were no human rights for them in the time of Lincoln. Whatever he said, we must acknowledge that black people's rights are started by Lincoln. In addition to that, we also must acknowledge his change of perception towards blacks' rights. Lincoln proclaimed that he will improve their lives if he gets re-elected for the next 4 years. If that really happened, black people's lives will be one step ahead of today.

The history of Abraham Lincoln is a good example of the words "history is made by those who created it." Lincoln is noted only for his great achievements, which I understand, as it shaped today's world history. I was pretty disappointed though when I learned that he took his time in abolishing slavery as he was my inspiration. However, after more research and reading into primary sources, I think that it’s not fair to label him as a white supremacist because we are judging his actions from a modern perspective. We must keep in mind that during that time, the human rights movement was just at its bud. After a couple of centuries, understandably, the human rights movement has matured significantly. So our modern understanding of it would be very different from Lincoln’s time. Now that I know better, he has become much more than just an inspiration. He is proof that world-changing actions take process. It also shows that it's never too late to change yourself.