Lincoln and Emancipation

Concise Lincoln Library

by Edna Greene Medford

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 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.

Genres: Civil War

162 pages, Hardcover

First published May 12, 2015

About the author

Edna Greene Medford is Professor, current Chair, and former director of the graduate and undergraduate programs at Howard University.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best thing about this book was its brevity. The author somehow manages to get the point across in less than 200 pages. The book focuses on the 16th president and his struggles to bring about emancipation. While this was a brief overview of the subject, much more could have been included in the text. But, then it wouldn't have been an easy one day read!! Overall a worthy effort and well worth the time spent reading it.

[David Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edna Greene Medford is an expert on Abraham Lincoln and, in particular, his views on slavery, race, and emancipation. As she shows in this book, these views were perhaps more complicated than most would know.

The book is part of Southern Illinois Press's "Concise Lincoln Library," and as the name suggests it is short, coming in at 112 pages plus notes and bibliography. The series is designed to concisely examine its narrow topic, and Medford does an excellent job looking at Lincoln and Emancipation.

The first chapter looks at Lincoln's early experiences with slavery. Though limited, he did grow up in Kentucky (which had slaves) and Indiana (which had just been made a state and barred slavery). He then moves to Illinois, another free state, but one with exceptionally stringent "Black Laws" that effectively kept even free blacks from living in the state. Racism, the belief that whites were superior to blacks, was rampant even in the North.

Chapters 2 and 3 examine how slavery, and racism, defined the election of 1860, the splitting of the Union, and the onslaught of the Civil War. Running on a platform that acknowledged the Constitution protected slavery where it existed, the South nonetheless saw the election of Abraham Lincoln as a formidable block to the expansion of slavery, which they took to be the first step in its ultimate extinction. And the war came.

Fighting to save the Union whether slavery continued or not, Lincoln ultimately realizes the military necessity of emancipating the slaves. Chapter 4 describes the thought processes and events that led to the Emancipation Proclamation, including the roles of free, enslaved, and escaped African-Americans.

In Chapter 5, Medford examines a little-discussed aspect of emancipation - insight into how the freed slaves felt about their new-found freedom. Of course, that freedom was often rather complicated and fleeting since the Proclamation freed only those slaves in the South where the northern armies had no control. As such, much of the "freedom" was self-initiated, and included those slaves who were in areas under northern control (e.g., border states) and thus not technically freed at all.

The final chapter addresses the events leading up to the 13th Amendment and post-Lincoln ramifications. The end of slavery didn't actually end slavery or racism or discrimination, but attempts were made to Constitutionalize freedom.

Throughout the book Medford, who is Chair of the History Department at Howard University, shows her insight into the topic. It is well written and easy to read at any level. As part of the Concise Library it does not go into great depth on many of the issues and events, but anyone wanting an excellent discussion of Lincoln, slavery, and emancipation would be wise to begin with this book.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent short study of how Abraham Lincoln came to embrace emancipation during the Civil War, one that emphasizes the roles African Americans played in bringing it about.