Lincoln’s Emancipation Working with the Abolitionist Movement

Lincoln’s Emancipation working with the abolitionist movement

Most people say there are two sides to every story, but there can only be one side to the story of people, being denied as to having equal rights, no matter their color or creed. It 's only reasonable to believe that to be true to this principle, slavery had to be abolished. The fact that many slave owners were prestigious people in history such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other founding father acknowledges the consequences slavery America 's moral history, while illustrating how difficult it might be to conform to the social standards in that era while defending slavery as a necessary evil. Abraham Lincoln’s stance on slavery remained one of the central issues in American history at the time. Around the period when Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, many debates for this decree were being perpetuated by both black and white abolitionist. The brutal disagreement would tear apart the North and the South states which was carried to its fullest extent in the United States in the years before and during the Civil War.
The South, also known as the Confederates, supported slavery. The North, also known as the Union, was anti-slavery, and made every effort that they could to cease it. Most southern white Americans feared that elimination of the slavery institution would be very harmful for social and economic growth, and threaten their livelihood. Karl Marx once said,
“Direct slavery is just as much the pivot of bourgeois industry as machinery, credits etc. Without slavery you have no cotton; without cotton you have no modern industry. It is slavery that has given the colonies their value; it is the colonies that have created world trade, and it is world trade that is pre-condition of large-scale industry. Thus slavery is an economic category of the greatest importance” (Korsch 18).
The Confederates were usually cruel to their slaves, and denied them basic rights. One of the greatest catalysts that caused the outbreak of the Civil War was the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Primarily, this document dealt with the right to reclaim runaway slaves. This law enabled southerners to call upon the federal government to capture runaway slaves who had fled from the South, and may be living in the North, in hope of a safe haven. Some northern states passed laws forbidding state officials to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, which only angered the southern states. Many northerners started to take action to help slaves escape from their owners. This major controversy over the runaway slaves sparked the beginning of the Civil War.
The northerners felt that slavery was an act that was in opposition to the United States Constitution. The Constitution states that all people were entitled to their basic rights, to which the suspected runaway slaves were being denied. It was known that some blacks in the North were free, yet they were still being accused of being a runaway during this time of chaos, which led to a lot of kidnappings. Blacks were not given their basic right to a jury, and were denied of their right to be innocent until proven guilty, which rubbed a lot of northerners the wrong way.
"I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation...I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, AND I WILL BE HEARD" (Chapman 51). Those were some of the most powerful words of the time, which were stated in just the first issue of William Lloyd Garrison 's anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator, which was released to the public in 1831. Garrison continuously spoke out against slavery and for the rights of America 's colored inhabitants. Through the Liberator, Garrison pressed for the emancipation of all slaves. When questioned about what would become of all of the freed slaves, he responded by saying that the slaves would assimilate, and soon be granted the same freedoms and respect of the white population. Garrison 's newspaper was not widely circulated; there were fewer than four hundred subscriptions during its second year of publication. However, Garrison held the widespread reputation of being one of the most radical of abolitionists. In 1832, he helped to organize the New England Anti-Slavery Society, followed by the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. These were the first organizations dedicated to promoting immediate emancipation.
Black and white abolitionists shared common assumptions about the evil of slavery, the "virtue of moral reform", and the certainty of human progress"(Schor 1). This shared understanding provided "the basic for the interracial solidarity" and cooperation so vital in the crusade against slavery" (Schor 2). But blacks also brought a distinct perspective to the antislavery movement. Their abolitionism was shaped profoundly by their personal experience and racial oppression. Frederick Douglass is perhaps the most well-known abolitionist from American history. He is responsible for creating a lot of support for the abolitionist movement in the years before the Civil War. He, along with many others, was able to gain support for and attention to the abolitionist movement. People like him are the reason that slavery ended in the United States.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in February of 1818 in Maryland to a slave woman and a white man. He was separated from his mother as an infant and the only thing that he knew for sure about his father was that he was white, although he thought it was a possibility that his father could have been his master. He grew up to become one of the greatest black abolitionists. Along with Martin R. Delany, he started an abolitionist newspaper like Garrison’s called The North Star. In 1852, Fredrick Douglass is invited to speak to the public and President of the United States on the topic of Independence Day also known as July 4th. Douglass shows a great and intelligent form of resistance by using the holiday point out the inequality facing his people (Douglass). He begins the speech by addressing the crowd as "Fellow Citizens" (Douglass 38), which he repeats several times. He did this to emphasize that they were all equal and should all have the same rights as citizens. Douglass did not tell them what they wanted to hear, but instead what they needed to hear. He went into detail about how slavery infects generations like a hereditary disease, and even quoting Shakespeare, but I sincerely believe his strongest argument was showing that slavery was not a creation approved by God. He quoted many bible verses including Psalm 137:1-6, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down...How we can sing the lords song in a strange land"(Douglass 39). This passage from psalms describes a tale of bondage experienced by the Israelites, God 's people. He was comparing this to African Americans being captive in a country that is not their own and how God eventually saved his people and took them out of Zion, because he did not condone their bondage. He describes slavery as an "unholy license".
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation added moral force to the Union’s cause and strengthened the abolitionist movement both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery 's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation had assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom. The nightmare of slavery was over but racism was and is still upon us. With the arrival of the 20th century, tens of thousands of African Americans left the farms of the South to travel north in search of justice, economic independence and hopeful of a new beginning, found themselves crowded into the poorest sections of cities, facing poverty, hatred, intolerance and indifference.

Works Cited
Chapman, John Jay. William Lloyd Garrison,. Boston: Atlantic Monthly, 1921. Print.
Douglass, Frederick, and Philip Sheldon Foner. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. New York: International, 1952. Print.
Korsch, Karl. Karl Marx. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963. Print.
Schor, Joel. Henry Highland Garnet: A Voice of Black Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1977. Print.

Cited: Chapman, John Jay. William Lloyd Garrison,. Boston: Atlantic Monthly, 1921. Print. Douglass, Frederick, and Philip Sheldon Foner. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. New York: International, 1952. Print. Korsch, Karl. Karl Marx. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963. Print. Schor, Joel. Henry Highland Garnet: A Voice of Black Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1977. Print.