What Was Lincoln's Role In American History

Lincoln the racist, who thought whites were the natural superior of Blacks, and who cared nothing about the question of slavery except how it could help him win a war fought for the profits of northern manufacturers. Lincoln didn't "free the slaves" by himself, but he did play an important part in the struggle to end slavery. Lincoln's importance in history wasn't as an abolitionist thinker--he did, indeed, hold backward ideas about race compared to other opponents of slavery--or as an organizer for the cause, but in the role he played in a specific historical situation. Slavery not only didn't die out--it thrived. Under the South's oligarchy of big plantation owners, all the horrors of the slave system were intensified. the northern U.S. was developing in a very different direction. Small-scale farming continued to remain significant, but more and …show more content…
Naturalness and grace — rather than artificial gestures and declamation — characterized Douglass’s oratorical style, which also included dramatic skill, notably mimicry. The wit, satiric bite, and pathos of his speeches combined with a poignant earnestness to mesmerize listeners. More specifically, the clarity and force of the plain statement of his own experiences and observations as a former slave proved riveting.
Mr. Lincoln was the steadier personality. Mr. Lincoln was more consistent in his political allegiances and political beliefs that Douglass. He had a love-hate affair with the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln. Douglass was not always a Lincoln admirer — or a Republican supporter. By 1856, however, Douglass was supporting the Republican party. Between 1856 and 1860, as the Republican moved from the zenith of their antislavery appeal, giving up antislavery altogether in some areas, and increasingly emphasizing more attractive issues, Douglass once more cut his affiliation with