Lincoln, as with all US presidents, was still a terrible person. Indigenous genocider who only ever emancipated PoC for military strategy and floated the idea of deporting all the newly freed persons to some island multiple times rather than dealing with integrating them into society. He wrecked radical reconstruction by being ultra soft on Confederates because he, as stated plainly more than once, cared far more that the country stay together than for the well-being of PoC. Of course, his successor was much worse on that front, but still.
I’m completely confident that people 150 years from now will say very similar things about us and our contemporaries. Maybe that knowledge will help you chill the fuck out, even just a bit.
I hope they do and I hope they see those of us who call it out for what it is nowadays just as there existed many people back then who knew what was truly right.
who only ever emancipated PoC for military strategy
Not even close to true.
and floated the idea of deporting all the newly freed persons to some island multiple times rather than dealing with integrating them into society.
Colonization was widely supported pre-Civil War by leaders of the Black community as well.
He wrecked radical reconstruction by being ultra soft on Confederates
Out of no small concern for the prospect of a guerilla war sparking up - something which the KKK several years later, thankfully after the Confederates had been largely disarmed and disbanded, did end up creating in response to losing their ‘privileges’ over Black folk as part of Reconstruction. As they were disorganized and ill-equipped, President Grant was able to decisively put them down and eradicate their organization as well as their fighting capacity with the use of Federal troops. If those numbers had been swollen years earlier by freshly desperate Confederate veterans, still in close contact with their units? It would not have gone as smoothly as it did.
Fuck, man. People are products of their time and environment. Take the quote as the W it is.
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. 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.” - Abraham Lincoln in an open letter to Horace Greeley, 1862.
Colonization was widely supported pre-Civil War by leaders of the Black community as well.
Maybe in a world where being freed in the USA seemed impossible, and from a place of struggle. Not out of the mouth of the most powerful man in the country AFTER these people were made free.
Out of no small concern for the prospect of a guerilla war sparking up - something which the KKK several years later, thankfully after the Confederates had been largely disarmed and disbanded, did end up creating in response to losing their ‘privileges’ over Black folk as part of Reconstruction
Leaving Confederates largely in power is exactly what led to this. The system had to be dismantled not wishy-washy “oh just say you’re loyal now and you can go back to your life”. This left Confederates in a position in society that hugely hampered financial and societal freedom of the freedmen in a vicious, self worsening cycle setting them back into a spiral of poverty that led to nearly as bad conditions as slavery.
People are products of their time
There are people from that time with FAR better views and actions than Lincoln.
who only ever emancipated PoC for military strategy
I deliberately avoided contesting
because he, as stated plainly more than once, cared far more that the country stay together than for the well-being of PoC.
Maybe in a world where being freed in the USA seemed impossible, and from a place of struggle. Not out of the mouth of the most powerful man in the country AFTER these people were made free.
Lincoln publicly spoke out in favor of full integration of Black Americans into the national fabric before his death. Most sources agree Lincoln abandoned colonization shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation; others say only after the approval of the 13th by the Senate.
Leaving Confederates largely in power is exactly what led to this. The system had to be dismantled not wishy-washy “oh just say you’re loyal now and you can go back to your life”.
Confederates were largely not left in power by Lincoln. Do you not remember the terms laid down by Reconstruction before Johnson?
There are people from that time with FAR better views and actions than Lincoln.
cared more for keeping the country together than the interests of PoC
You say that as if the country staying together wasn’t one million percent in the interest of all the black folks that separatism was sparked for the explicit purpose of keeping enslaved.
You strike me as the kind of person who thinks the answer to frustration with democratic status-quo on Israel right now is to let the guy who served them West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights on a silver platter back into office, either because you’re bad at math or because you think looking like you’re bad at math is better than getting called out for being a fucking traitor and collaborationist.
Lincoln, as with all US presidents, was still a terrible person. Indigenous genocider who only ever emancipated PoC for military strategy and floated the idea of deporting all the newly freed persons to some island multiple times rather than dealing with integrating them into society. He wrecked radical reconstruction by being ultra soft on Confederates because he, as stated plainly more than once, cared far more that the country stay together than for the well-being of PoC. Of course, his successor was much worse on that front, but still.
I’m completely confident that people 150 years from now will say very similar things about us and our contemporaries. Maybe that knowledge will help you chill the fuck out, even just a bit.
I hope they do and I hope they see those of us who call it out for what it is nowadays just as there existed many people back then who knew what was truly right.
Not even close to true.
Colonization was widely supported pre-Civil War by leaders of the Black community as well.
Out of no small concern for the prospect of a guerilla war sparking up - something which the KKK several years later, thankfully after the Confederates had been largely disarmed and disbanded, did end up creating in response to losing their ‘privileges’ over Black folk as part of Reconstruction. As they were disorganized and ill-equipped, President Grant was able to decisively put them down and eradicate their organization as well as their fighting capacity with the use of Federal troops. If those numbers had been swollen years earlier by freshly desperate Confederate veterans, still in close contact with their units? It would not have gone as smoothly as it did.
Fuck, man. People are products of their time and environment. Take the quote as the W it is.
Maybe in a world where being freed in the USA seemed impossible, and from a place of struggle. Not out of the mouth of the most powerful man in the country AFTER these people were made free.
Leaving Confederates largely in power is exactly what led to this. The system had to be dismantled not wishy-washy “oh just say you’re loyal now and you can go back to your life”. This left Confederates in a position in society that hugely hampered financial and societal freedom of the freedmen in a vicious, self worsening cycle setting them back into a spiral of poverty that led to nearly as bad conditions as slavery.
There are people from that time with FAR better views and actions than Lincoln.
That quote in no way backs up
I deliberately avoided contesting
Lincoln publicly spoke out in favor of full integration of Black Americans into the national fabric before his death. Most sources agree Lincoln abandoned colonization shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation; others say only after the approval of the 13th by the Senate.
Confederates were largely not left in power by Lincoln. Do you not remember the terms laid down by Reconstruction before Johnson?
Okay?
You say that as if the country staying together wasn’t one million percent in the interest of all the black folks that separatism was sparked for the explicit purpose of keeping enslaved.
You strike me as the kind of person who thinks the answer to frustration with democratic status-quo on Israel right now is to let the guy who served them West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights on a silver platter back into office, either because you’re bad at math or because you think looking like you’re bad at math is better than getting called out for being a fucking traitor and collaborationist.