商品詳細

In this succinct study, Edna Greene Med-ford examines the ideas and events that shaped President Lincoln's responses to slavery, following the arc of his ideo-logical development from the beginning of the Civil War, when he aimed to pur-sue a course of noninterference, to his championing of slavery's destruction before the conflict ended. Throughout, Medford juxtaposes the president's mo-tivations for advocating freedom with the aspirations of African Americans, restoring African Americans to the cen-ter of the story about the struggle for their own liberation.

Lincoln and African Americans, Medford argues, approached emanci-pation differently, with the president moving slowly and cautiously in order to save the Union, while the enslaved and their supporters pressed more ur-gently for an end to slavery. Despite their differences, an undeclared part-nership existed between the president and the enslaved that led to both pres-ervation of the Union and freedom for those in bondage. While Lincoln re-mains central to the story, the author argues that many players-including the abolitionists and Radical Republi-cans, War Democrats, and black men and women-participated in the drama through agitation, military support of the Union, and destruction of the insti-tution from within. By including African American voices in the emancipation narrative, this insightful volume offers a fresh and welcome perspective on Lincoln's America.