History Lecture 11 19 2013 Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery Key Terms Harriet Tubman Harriet Beecher Stowe Emancipation Proclamation Reminders Next Tuesday is the last lecture for this class Tuesday December 3rd universal make up session o I don t need to go Final exam Friday December 6th 10 30 am 1 00 pm o Key terms and short answer same amount as on normal exams o An additional 2 essays 25 points each A theme talked about throughout the semester o Cumulative o Review going up on Blackboard TODAY Final exam review session Wednesday December 4 4 5 30 pm in Holden Hall 104 Essays will need four examples Two prior the American Revolution and two post American Revolution Most successful essays have been 6 paragraphs o Intro with argument and a paragraph devoted to each example 4 and conclusion of points and argument Abolition Movement Origins in the years of the American Revolution Gained steam in the 1830s o Such fiery abolitionists as William Lloyd Garrison o By this time many other countries had abolished slavery o Slavery no longer existed in the North Crisis of the 1850s o John Brown Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman A network of secret routes and safe houses designed to help slaves escape to free states or even as far north as Canada Thought to have started soon after the end of the American Revolution but usage peaks in the 1850s Over 100 000 slaves gained freedom from the 1780s 1860s via the Underground Railroad Born a slave in Maryland around 1820 Was convinced slavery was awful from a very young age around 13 Ran away when she was about 25 twelve years after using the Underground Railroad o Her family remained enslaved o She returns to the South to guide her family along the route to freedom Returned to the South 19 times and helped 300 slaves escape as a conductor Rewards for her capture reached 40 000 non adjusted During the Civil War she acted as a nurse and a spy for the Union Significant because the South s fear of her existence was proof of how fearful the South was of losing their slaves Alongside that she was a black woman o She also shows how the everyday person fought to end slavery There were many ways in which one could be involved in the abolitionist movement Harriet Beecher Stowe Received a male education o Became a writer In the 1830s and 40s she and her husband opened their home as a station along the Underground Railroad In the 1850s she began writing a serial for an anti slavery journal o 1852 Uncle Tom s Cabin is published which depicted life for African Americans under slavery o Hoped it would inspire readers to feel that slavery should be ended Book is significant because it later becomes a play that reached millions of people as a book and a play Mobilized anti slavery forces in the North and angered the South o They felt it was an unfair portrayal of the South One of the sparks that led to the Civil War Lincoln as the great emancipator Lincoln as a leader or a follower on emancipation A unionist or an abolitionist A calculating politician or an antislavery idealist Biographical background Born in Kentucky in 1809 later moved to Indiana and then Illinois Had less than one year of former schooling Once in Illinois dabbled in professions and eventually studied law He believed in the power of government o Federal funding of roads and canals o Federal support for the unemployed bleck He was elected as a Whig to the Illinois legislature in 1834 at age 25 Lincoln and Slavery In 1837 he took his public stance on slavery Supported the Wilmot Proviso Mexican territory Opposed the Kansas Nebraska Bill In 1856 Lincoln joined the Republican Party In 1857 he spoke out against the Dred Scott decision The Election of 1860 o After Mexican American war said that slavery could not be integrated into former Lincoln pledged to protect slavery where it existed but to prevent its expansion He said that slavery was morally wrong but the Constitution gave the federal government no power to abolish it He was elected with less than 40 of the popular vote and no southern votes Secession By the time Lincoln was inaugurated in1861 seven states had seceded from the Union o Support for secession was not unanimous o Voting for secession was help at the county level Delegates from the South were more likely to of owned a large number of slaves They were the ones who were making the decisions over secession Declared secession as wrong Promised that he would not interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists Lincoln s Inaugural Address Civil War Begins April 12 1861 Fort Sumner South Carolina o Confederates fire upon Union soldiers After the attack four more states joined the Confederacy o VA AK NC and TN Appeal to border sates Lincoln in 1862 Lincoln promised to return slaves to their owners when they escaped to Union lines This policy lasted until May 1861 when one of Lincoln s generals lifted it He is still not considering slavery as the issue of the Civil War and is concerned to keep the Union together until Sept 1862 Emancipation Proclamation January 1 1863 Freed slaves in areas under Confederate control o Did not free slaves in the border states or in areas in the South occupied by Union forces o Only applied to the areas in revolt Provides no compensation to slave owners Conclusion Devised as a way to hurt the Confedarcy No colonization Impact of the Emancipation Proclamation In the North the Emancipation Proclamation increased resentment within many poor whites leading to urban unrest o Many poor whites in the North did not want slavery to end since slavery help them socially above blacks They would have to compete for jobs with them too In the South slaves interpreted it in the broadest possible sense o Slaves literally walk away from plantations They free themselves W E B Dubois notion of the general strike The loss of the labour of slaves is what led to the Confederacy losing the war Throughout the nation the Proclamation shifted the meaning of the war to be centrally about slavery While credited for being the Great Emancipator Lincoln came to support abolition only gradually whereas thousands of people had been fighting for an end to slavery for decades