On Slavery Eric Foner Summary

Eric Foner analyzes a very crucial part of the war, the debate over slavery and the event of emancipation by unearthing Lincoln’s thoughts on slavery since he was a child in Kentucky, to his final days serving in the White House. He relies on speeches, personal letters, and newspapers to do this in such a way that he does not frame emancipation as an inevitable occurrence, but instead as a junction of theory and unforeseen stimulus, depending also on Lincoln's personal strive to diminish slavery, the urgence of destroying slavery’s economic rate, and the President’s steadfastness to keep the union as a whole.
Foner’s study of Lincoln’s childhood lead him to think his thoughts on slavery didn’t change a whole lot through his childhood. The author sees a moderate attitude and nervousness over division in Lincoln, this was a sensible frame of mind that helped body his opinion on slavery. Though Lincoln was never a protector of slavery, in his forties he came to realise the debate of
The author also observes that Lincoln’s moderation in attitude continued to influence his presidency through the Civil War. He believed that calming nonconformist ideas and restoring legal authority throughout the nation were his main objectives. Foner displays his opinion in saying that in the early stages of war abolition wasn’t a priority for Lincoln, but a bargain that encouraged the reunification of the United States. As well as avoiding the slavery question, the President was enticing the border states with offers of reimbursed emancipation. Foner puts emphasis on the fact that as Lincoln's perspective on the pending issues change, his view adopted a new position that were previously held by abolitionists and Radical