Preview

The Fiery Trial Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
366 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Fiery Trial Summary
The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner is a great read that brings to light many of the messy issues and problems regarding slavery before and during the Civil War. The author specifically discusses Abraham Lincoln and the changing of his views over time. The Fiery Trial has humanized Abraham Lincoln for me and I am able to more clearly understand the motives for the Civil War.
I found that the book did a fantastic job of thoroughly describing Lincoln’s opinions and views and explaining why he felt the way that he did. While reading the book it is easy to see that the author has spent a tremendous amount of time researching Lincoln. I appreciated that the author clearly expressed Lincoln’s thoughts and feelings towards slavery and race. Some people

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The scorch trials by James Dashner is the continuation story of Thomas and the surviving people of the glade. The book starts with Thomas waking up where book one ended, in the safe haven. They are then told by a man that they have been infected by the “flare”, a disease that has killed a large portion of the population, they have to make it across the “scorch” to get the cure to the “flare” disease as Rat Man explains “Make it to the safe haven within two weeks’ time and you’ll have completed Phase Two. At that point, and only at that point, you’ll be cured of the Flare.” As they travel through the “scorch” they lose many people to lighting and Metal balls that clasp over peoples heads decapitate them then roll away.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The passage given, was a hard one to read, not because of the length or the style of which it was set up, but because reading that everything I was ever taught about President Lincoln was a lie, or almost one. I want to say my favorite President has changed, but to who? The big story about Honest Abe, was that he freed the slaves, because he preached to the people, the Union won the war because they allowed blacks to be with them in battle, making a stronger ‘Union’. That seemed good enough for me, but the thought that he didn’t actually care if they were freed or not, was scandalous to me. He treated them like equals, yet he didn’t…

    • 129 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    He shows how slaves work down to the bone only to barley survive enough to do more work the next day. He shows how if they wouldn’t find a peaceful way to release the hold of slavery their would be rebellions. He wants the government to let African Americans to have the same and equal rights as a white man. This would be fair to the White and African Americans. When Douglas wrote to Lincoln his letters only demands were to be recognized as a human just the…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In my own critical opinion of the book, it is very dirt and unentertaining (probably because Lincoln does not real interesting to me). Because of this, it was extremely difficult to make myself read the book, not to mention read a book review on it. One will not be recommending this book to others because I know no one who really loves history. One would notice that the chapters were argumentative, and notice that the author uses primary and secondary sources. The author also uses end notes for his sources.…

    • 2365 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narration by James Oakes starts in the mid 1850’s in the American North (The Union) but specifically in the Illinois state. Here Abraham Lincoln was running for the Illinois Senate against a rival ironically named Stephen Douglas. He gets elected into the senate and in the early 1860’s Lincoln is inaugurated as the President. At the time, Frederick Douglas, a former slave living in the North, was a slave- abolitionist and close to a radical although he hated politics. So in the 1860’s, President Lincoln (under the Republican Party) began pushing towards the emancipation of slavery in the south. He argued that slaves were human too, that God did not justify it, and the Founding Fathers did not approve of it when they wrote the Constitution. Despite of the opposition down south, the north…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Abraham Lincoln's speech addresses the issues of slavery and how the civil war could have been avoided. Lincoln appeals to the American people's sense of jingoism and references the bible to create a common ground for the people to relate with.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Historically, the Anishinaabe were given certain rights to hunt and fish in northern parts of Wisconsin. Native people used the supply of fish as a way to nourish themselves and their families (p.280). The Anishinaabe people were known for harvesting and making use of everything on their land for food, clothing, and shelter (p. 232). In 1854, the Treaty of LaPointe was created, keeping Indigenous people from using their land to hunt and fish freely. As a result of this, the Anishinaabe people were left amongst the poorest people in North America (p.233).…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author James M McPherson discerns Lincoln's character in the transfiguration shaped by the Civil War. This book “Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution”. Contains seven thoughtful chapters that explains the emancipation of countless slaves, also the rebellion of the community and governmental command of the South. The Civil War was the utmost changing and significant involvement in the history of United States of America, then Abraham Lincoln keeps being the greatest legend character.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States (1861-1865) was born is 1809, he came from a very humble family of farmers. Lincoln was an ambitious young man who learned to write and read and educated himself into becoming a respectful lawyer earning his license in 1837 and becoming a renowned public figure in Springfield, Illinois. He had an outstanding impact in the 1850’s when the Republican Party was fighting against slavery also known as the ‘’ Free-Soilers, and Anti-slavery Democrats’’. Lincoln got recognized during several slavery debates in a senate run in 1858 against S. Douglas claiming that: ‘’Slavery violated the natural rights of Black people.’’ He entered the presidential election in 1860 during the midst of slavery…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Did you find the article helpful in better understanding The Narrative and/or Douglass’ life (or his efforts as an abolitionist)? In what…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln Summary

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The book Abraham Lincoln, written by James M. McPherson, constitutes not only Abraham Lincoln’s life, but also his remarkable presidency. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. He also was considered a peacemaker because his passion was to follow God’s law and create every man to be equal. During Lincoln’s first term of presidency in 1860-1864, he followed his passion by abolishing slavery, otherwise known as the Thirteenth Amendment. Following his first term, his second term’s goal is now known as the Fifteenth Amendment. To say the least, McPherson argues the brilliancy of Abraham Lincoln’s ideas and the colossal contribution Lincoln had regarding the United States of America.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This logicality of Lincoln’s thoughts is even more evident in his note, ‘Fragments of Slavery’. Here, Lincoln breaks down the entire…

    • 2916 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Lincoln’s star shined when his administration took place during the Civil War proving excellency in both politically and rhetorically. From that war the 16th president got his most famous nick name as the Great Emancipator that dwells between Americans till the present day. However, history doesn’t say quit the same about the complete representation of Abraham Lincoln’s attitude towards the war and even the issue of slavery. Such a title proposes an acceptance that the civil war was a war for abolishing slavery and freeing the slaves under the lead of a free man who is motivated by the moral code of equality between blacks and whites. The sentiment about slavery was totally different than today’s. Slaves were private property and not even considered as human beings who have lost rights as Americans. Actually, slaves were a joker in the pack to both Northerners and Southerners. Saying all this make the slavery issue seems the cover of the civil war. Therefore, the goal of this chapter’s second section is to examine whether slavery was used only as a front image to fulfil a higher aim and securing the country from the danger that disturbed it with the threat of dissolving the union.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abraham Lincoln is known as "The Great Emancipator" who freed the slaves. Yet in the early part of his career and even in the early stages of his presidency, Lincoln had no objection to slavery where it already existed, namely, in the Southern states. As a savvy politician, he always wanted to maintain the union, and he would use any device to keep the country together. However, his views on slavery evolved during his presidency, and the personal opposition towards slavery that he claimed he always had began to show through in his policy. As Lincoln noted in 1864, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel" (Lorence 306). Despite such strongly worded beliefs, Lincoln policies towards slavery often shifted for the sake of political expedience. For example, he pledged that states would be compensated for their loss of property as a result of emancipation to keep the border states from seceding. Still, by 1862 Lincoln had become firm in his convictions that slavery must be abolished. He even pressed for a constitutional amendment to ensure freedom to all the slaves. Lincoln espoused strong anti-slavery views, but he often put what he viewed as the good of the country ahead of the cause. Despite many detours along the way, he proved himself to be "The Great Emancipator." As a self-made politician from humble origins, Lincoln struggled in his early political life to define his identity. He described his childhood as "The short and simple annals of the poor. That's my life, and that's all you or any one else can make of it" (Oates 4). Lincoln felt extremely embarrassed about his background and worked his entire life to overcome the limitations he faced. He made himself a "literate and professional man who commanded the respect of his colleagues" (Oates 4). It is difficult to assess Lincoln's early views on slavery and race because they were constantly changing in an effort to achieve such…

    • 2258 Words
    • 65 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It has been the task of biographers ever since to deplore that image of Lincoln as the sort of extremist rhetoric that abolitionism was generally renowned for; or to insist that Lincoln may have had elements of racism in him but that he gradually effaced them as he moved on his "journey" to emancipation; or to suggest that Lincoln was an abolitionist all along who dragged his feet over emancipation for pragmatic political reasons.…

    • 5760 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays