Analysis Of The Civil War By James Oakes

James Oakes writes this book through two filters, one through Frederick Douglas, and one through Abraham Lincoln. Both fighting for the same thing, just with different motives. Throughout the book he writes an account of the transformation of these two great american leaders, and how they play off each others moves. The background of this metaphorical chess game would be the civil war over the debate of slavery in the mid-19th century America. Oakes paints both of these leaders in their own beautiful strokes: Douglass with his reforms; and Lincoln with his republican coalition. Oakes wrote about these two in the most honest way he could, providing readers with historical knowledge that may or may not be objective, but still is knowledge.

The latter’s economy was factory driven, therefore there was no need for the slave labor, which there was a very high demand for in the southern states. People in the north were starting to realize that although these slaves were black, they were still people, a relatively new idea for Americans, whom had relied on this labor for hundreds of years. The northern peoples had the epiphany that the African-American people were being treated very unfairly and unethically and were not happy with it. The southern people were either blind to this fact or chose to ignore it so that they could continue to thrive financially, and make the most money using the free slave labor. The work in the south was much more labor intensive, whether it was agriculture or something of the like, so the landowners were much more content sitting back watching the darker skinned people do all the dirty work for them. This caused problems because when the northern states decided that it would be against the law to consider people property, and have total physical control over them, the south was having none of

Many of his words have been taken out of context, to be used positively by some, and negatively by others. His personal opinions about the equality of races are debated, but in this book Oakes sets aside all of that, and presents the “political minefield” that Lincoln had to tiptoe through. Frederick Douglass fights with Lincoln because he feels that Lincoln is not committed to equality, and is using that topic as a tool to get what he wants, but eventually becomes a passionate supporter, and even crowns Lincoln as “the Black man’s president”. Oakes says that the story laid out on the pages to follow shows “. . .what can happen when progressive reformers and savvy politicians make common cause.”(p. xx. ) Lincoln relied on Douglass, partly because Douglass made Lincoln appear conservative. Douglass relied on Lincoln, partly because Lincoln gave political legitimacy to the abolitionist cause.
Oakes’ thesis that Lincoln had firm principles about human equality does not only come from the mentions of his younger years, but also by the original anti‐slavery acts that