Abraham Lincoln is known as the president that brought Slavery in America to its deathbed. Frederick Douglass is known as a leading voice in the abolitionist movement. These two heroes of history have been studied tremendously by historians analyzing the impact they have had on our nation’s history. However, many people have not taken the time to connect the dots of history, connecting each character of history with another. That is what James Oakes has done with his book “The Radical and the Republican” an analysis and documentary on how these two men of history were connected. Oakes took great interest in showing the personal relation between Lincoln and Douglass, along with giving a brutally honest view of their personal lives through the
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On the morning of August 10th, 1863 (2) Douglass and Lincoln had their first meeting. The meeting between the radical Douglass and the Republican Lincoln forever changed the relationship and the view Douglass held about Lincoln. Lincoln was a constant target for Douglasses rants against slavery. He believed the government should be taking instant action to free the slaves and make the slave population free citizen of the United States. After Douglass and Lincoln met Douglass began to change his tone on what he thought of Lincoln. Douglass formerly would criticize Lincoln on any move that he made. After the meeting when speaking on Lincoln Douglass said: “fundamentally honest man” (3) and claiming he had never met anyone as transparent as Lincoln was. That was the start of a sharp transition between Douglass and …show more content…
It also showed the transformation of the personal relation between the two. James Oakes also painted a brutally honest picture of the lives of Douglass and Lincoln. When writing about Lincoln Oakes referred to the fact the Lincoln did not believe in separating the issues of Racism and Slavery (3). When we look through our history books we can see how some of the “blackspots” on our historical heroes have been hidden. For Lincoln is was the fact that he did not believe in the separation of racism and slavery. While he believed that slavery was wrong for any person, he did not see anything wrong with inter-racial marriage being frowned upon. When it comes to Douglass, while many consider him a leading abolitionist he had a tendency to jump ship when it suited him. When it suited him he would consider Abraham Lincoln his friend, yet he could quickly turn and refer to Lincoln as doing “Evil by choice, right by necessity (4)” As Christian historians we should always strive to look at both the good and bad of each history hero’s life as we look at how they impacted the world, never covering over the dark spots on American
On the morning of August 10th, 1863 (2) Douglass and Lincoln had their first meeting. The meeting between the radical Douglass and the Republican Lincoln forever changed the relationship and the view Douglass held about Lincoln. Lincoln was a constant target for Douglasses rants against slavery. He believed the government should be taking instant action to free the slaves and make the slave population free citizen of the United States. After Douglass and Lincoln met Douglass began to change his tone on what he thought of Lincoln. Douglass formerly would criticize Lincoln on any move that he made. After the meeting when speaking on Lincoln Douglass said: “fundamentally honest man” (3) and claiming he had never met anyone as transparent as Lincoln was. That was the start of a sharp transition between Douglass and …show more content…
It also showed the transformation of the personal relation between the two. James Oakes also painted a brutally honest picture of the lives of Douglass and Lincoln. When writing about Lincoln Oakes referred to the fact the Lincoln did not believe in separating the issues of Racism and Slavery (3). When we look through our history books we can see how some of the “blackspots” on our historical heroes have been hidden. For Lincoln is was the fact that he did not believe in the separation of racism and slavery. While he believed that slavery was wrong for any person, he did not see anything wrong with inter-racial marriage being frowned upon. When it comes to Douglass, while many consider him a leading abolitionist he had a tendency to jump ship when it suited him. When it suited him he would consider Abraham Lincoln his friend, yet he could quickly turn and refer to Lincoln as doing “Evil by choice, right by necessity (4)” As Christian historians we should always strive to look at both the good and bad of each history hero’s life as we look at how they impacted the world, never covering over the dark spots on American