Eric Foner

Lincoln was a modernizer,

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Lincoln was a modernizer, so to speak. He believed in economic development. As a Whig before the war he favored what we would call infrastructure spending, government appropriation for canals, railroads, river and harbor improvements, and a tariff to protect industry. He believed in this market revolution that was sweeping across Northern society. He himself … Read more

You pick up very

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You pick up very well-known books on Lincoln [and] you will find almost no reference to his long-term belief in colonization. Why? Because it doesn’t fit the image of the Great Emancipator. It doesn’t fit the retrospective view we want to have of Lincoln as the man who was the moralist in politics, who came … Read more

In a democratic society,

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In a democratic society, as Max Weber said, what is possible is only possible because some people have demanded the impossible. The abolitionists helped to create a public discourse in which men like Lincoln become possible. That doesn’t mean Lincoln is an abolitionist. It means there is a public opinion out there which is being … Read more

Colonization was the idea

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Colonization was the idea that once slavery ended African-Americans should be encouraged – or required, in some people’s view – required to leave the country. It’s part of an attitude toward the abolition of slavery which says America should not be a slave society, but it can never be a multiracial society. You can never … Read more

Lincoln has accepted America

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Lincoln has accepted America as a biracial society. He’s talking about giving at least some black men the right to vote. In the Emancipation Proclamation he advises some blacks to labor faithfully for reasonable wages, here in the United States. He doesn’t say anything about them leaving the country. He puts black men in the … Read more