I suspect some the truth of what the various people believed is somewhat different than the author presumes.
No evidence is given as to why Booth was considered a ‘virulant racist’. Maybe he was, but again maybe he was just a Confederate patriot who believed like many in the South that they had the right to go their own way. The South had both sorts of people in it and everything in between.
As to the problem for Easter sermon’s. There was a significant part of the Northern population that was anti-slavery, but even most of them would be considered racist by modern standards. I see no evidence that majority considered the war to be about freeing slaves… and in any case, the Emancipation Proclamation only emancipated slaves in the territories under the Confederacy. It did not free slaves in those areas which were part of the Union, although admittedly it must have put pressure on those places.
And lastly, although Lincoln may have been a relatively good man in terms of the times he lived in, he was still profoundly racist in modern terms. The creation of Liberia was something he strongly supported. If he were alive today, he will be a white supremacist but one without deep hatred of those who were not of his ethnicity.
Time changes and when looking at a world 150 years past it is easy to oversimplify the passions and beliefs of the people of that day and to attempt to understand them by mapping them onto a current ethos. It just does not work.
He didn’t have room in that article for it, but there is abundant historical evidence that Booth was a racist who wanted to preserve and restore slavery.
Yes, Lincoln opposed slavery, but it wasn’t because he wasn’t a racist.
Why would you be skeptical?
maybe he was just a Confederate patriot who believed like many in the South that they had the right to go their own way.
Recall that “to go their own way” specifically meant preserving the right to torture, rape and murder black Americans. Unpleasant as it sounds to modern ears, that is what Confederate patriots fought and killed and died for.
The specific impetus for the assassination seems to be a speech Lincoln gave April 11, in which he offered support for giving some blacks the right to vote. A friend of Booth’s recounted:
I had never seen Mr. Lincoln up close and I knew he was a tall man, however nothing could have prepared me for the sight of him. A long shadow did he have. And his arms, when at his sides, touched near his knees. Very professionally he said that there would never be any suffrage based on differences in the way people look. Upon this, Booth turned to the two of us and said, “That means nigger citizenship. Now by God I’ll put him through!”
Interesting that you wrote that Jim, considering your response to the ATF gun walking weapons to Mexican Drug cartels was that the murdered victims of the cartels were going to die anyway.
“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”
What? Too soon?
I think I once came across a Lincoln quote to the effect that holding the union together was the most important thing to him, ending slavery was simply necessary to achieve that ends, if the continuation of slavery had served to hold the union together, he would have supported slaveries continuation.
Is my recollection correct?
Found it: If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
Exactly. Lincoln was all about preserving the Union, though he did think slavery an abomination. But not because he didn’t consider whites superior. It was just out of basic human decency. He thought slavery wrong, regardless of race. That’s why he was a Republican.
But the Democrats remain, as they were from their founding, the fundamentalist party of racism.
That 1862 quote, like many of Lincoln’s, is not totally consistent with his later actions. By early 1865 it was clear that the war was won, and the Union saved. But Lincoln nonetheless made passage of the 13th amendment, outlawing slavery everywhere (including in states that had never left the Union), a top priority. Lincoln’s views on slavery evolved a great deal over the course of the war.
I do find it interesting, though, that the day Lincoln died, and the day the Titanic sank, all fall on Tax Day.
I suspect some the truth of what the various people believed is somewhat different than the author presumes.
No evidence is given as to why Booth was considered a ‘virulant racist’. Maybe he was, but again maybe he was just a Confederate patriot who believed like many in the South that they had the right to go their own way. The South had both sorts of people in it and everything in between.
As to the problem for Easter sermon’s. There was a significant part of the Northern population that was anti-slavery, but even most of them would be considered racist by modern standards. I see no evidence that majority considered the war to be about freeing slaves… and in any case, the Emancipation Proclamation only emancipated slaves in the territories under the Confederacy. It did not free slaves in those areas which were part of the Union, although admittedly it must have put pressure on those places.
And lastly, although Lincoln may have been a relatively good man in terms of the times he lived in, he was still profoundly racist in modern terms. The creation of Liberia was something he strongly supported. If he were alive today, he will be a white supremacist but one without deep hatred of those who were not of his ethnicity.
Time changes and when looking at a world 150 years past it is easy to oversimplify the passions and beliefs of the people of that day and to attempt to understand them by mapping them onto a current ethos. It just does not work.
He didn’t have room in that article for it, but there is abundant historical evidence that Booth was a racist who wanted to preserve and restore slavery.
I was skeptical that Lincoln was as racist as you claim, but you’re right.
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/top-5-racist-quotes-by-abraham-lincoln.203268709/
Yes, Lincoln opposed slavery, but it wasn’t because he wasn’t a racist.
Why would you be skeptical?
maybe he was just a Confederate patriot who believed like many in the South that they had the right to go their own way.
Recall that “to go their own way” specifically meant preserving the right to torture, rape and murder black Americans. Unpleasant as it sounds to modern ears, that is what Confederate patriots fought and killed and died for.
The specific impetus for the assassination seems to be a speech Lincoln gave April 11, in which he offered support for giving some blacks the right to vote. A friend of Booth’s recounted:
Interesting that you wrote that Jim, considering your response to the ATF gun walking weapons to Mexican Drug cartels was that the murdered victims of the cartels were going to die anyway.
“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”
What? Too soon?
I think I once came across a Lincoln quote to the effect that holding the union together was the most important thing to him, ending slavery was simply necessary to achieve that ends, if the continuation of slavery had served to hold the union together, he would have supported slaveries continuation.
Is my recollection correct?
Found it:
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
Exactly. Lincoln was all about preserving the Union, though he did think slavery an abomination. But not because he didn’t consider whites superior. It was just out of basic human decency. He thought slavery wrong, regardless of race. That’s why he was a Republican.
But the Democrats remain, as they were from their founding, the fundamentalist party of racism.
That 1862 quote, like many of Lincoln’s, is not totally consistent with his later actions. By early 1865 it was clear that the war was won, and the Union saved. But Lincoln nonetheless made passage of the 13th amendment, outlawing slavery everywhere (including in states that had never left the Union), a top priority. Lincoln’s views on slavery evolved a great deal over the course of the war.
I do find it interesting, though, that the day Lincoln died, and the day the Titanic sank, all fall on Tax Day.