Abraham Lincoln: Racist or Hero?
1) He was born in a log cabin.
2) He freed the slaves.
3) He got assassinated.
4) He's on the penny.
No matter how much you fell asleep in history classes, you probably know those exact same things. Indeed, Abraham Lincoln, as much as he was hated in his own day and age, is one of our most heroically mythologized presidents. My eight year-old son can even tell me about Lincoln!
Like my son, I remember being taught in school all about Lincoln. Indeed, the story of Lincoln the emancipator, the prophet of American equality has, over time, sunk deeply into the American conscience. My teachers taught that if not for Abraham Lincoln, I’d still be a slave.
And then I went to college and met people who said Lincoln was nothing more than a white supremacist who freed the slaves because it was the only way to crush the South and win the Civil War. If it hadn't been politically expedient for him to do so, he wouldn't have done it. According to this point of view, Lincoln didn’t care anything about black people. He saw them in the same light as the most racist slave-owning Southerner.
So which is it? Was Lincoln an emancipating saint or a white supremacist? Should I be grateful for him or toss darts at his head?
Well, a program airing on PBS tonight, called, “Looking for Lincoln” delves deeply into this complex discussion. Put together by Harvard professor, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and featuring commentary from Lincoln scholars like Doris Kearns Goodwin and David Blight, the show, which airs at 9 pm no matter where you are, tackles the question unflinchingly.
Here's Dr. Gates talking about the program on the Today Show this morning:
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Comments
I'm glad he gets an even shake in the documentary. I guess we all need that.
I'm sitting here now watching a Frontline episode on Barack Obama and waiting to watch Dr. Gates' program which comes on next. I heard him earlier in the day on NPR discussing it.
Anyway I'll stop by in the morning and comment on the show.
I read that he was a little of both, a racist and a hero.
I watched the program last night. It was interesting but as a devout cynic I can't really say that I'm surprised to learn of Lincoln's Bigotry and racism.
I've never viewed Lincoln as emancipator, mainly because I knew that The Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually end slavery, just slavery in the south.
So to hear the details of his reasoning was interesting but didn't really change my perception of him.
Actually the most shocking thing about the film was the Black family celebrating their ancestor who apparently saved his slave master during the Civil War. And this was taking place at a convention for Confederate sympathizers, wow. That was the thing that blew me away.
And one more thing about Lincoln...
Yeah he signed the paper that abolished slavery....
But when he signed it, Black Americans could not write, we could not own land, we could not read, we could not do anything except work for the White man.
In my opinion it is the equilivate of telling my 8 year old nephew, 'Ok Boy. You are a man now. So you need to get on up out of my house and fend for yourself. Go find you a job, a house and take care of yourself.'
But this is only my opinion.
outstanding. You and I both know having been born and bred in Illinois that all of this was NEVER taught or spoken of.
While, given the nature of the times, I am not surprised by this
enlightenment. To be quite frank, I dont think my life of honesty and growth began until I read Dr. Henry Louis Gates anthology and Charles Johnson's "Middle Passage".
I still hope we get there...this is all part of the journey I suppose...