Anti Slavery Dbq Essay

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Letter to Albert G. Hodges" (April 4, 1864), p. 281. Lincoln has always been against slavery from the beginning. He felt that it was wrong, and he fought the Civil War to end slavery. First, Lincoln is against slavery because he thought it was against what the United States stood for, that everyone was treated equally. Second, Lincoln felt that the fundamentals of slavery were wrong and he pitied them. Finally, Lincoln felt as though slavery should not spread. Lincoln felt that slavery was unfair, against what the U.S. stood for and thought

stood for. In Abraham Lincoln’s speech at Peoria, Illinois (document 5), he felt as though the United States allies would doubt the country’s honesty and it would cause them to go into war with one another over the fundamental principles of liberty because the United States is criticizing the Declaration of Independence. In the Declaration of Independence it states that all men are created equal, but the United States was not following that rule by having slavery. This would then cause people to not trust the country because they were not living by what they said and cause a war. Also, in Abraham Lincoln’s eulogy for Henry Clay (document 3), it states that the few people who want to keep slavery present are starting to attack and ridicule the white man's authority of freedom- the declaration that all men are created

In Fragments of slavery by Abraham Lincoln (document 4), it goes on to explain that if a black person made a point to enslave a white person, why wouldn’t a white person take the same point to enslave a black person. The white person would be able to enslave the black person because they had a darker skin tone. He tried to put the whites into the perspective of a slave. Every white person they met was most like a slave owner because they had a fairer skin tone. He said that white men are smarter than black people, he says that from a slave's point a view, every intellectual person a slave meets is a slave owner. If it was a question of interest though, the slave can make its own interest to enslave a white person. Lincoln points out all the flaws of how slaves are treated and the fundamentals of slavery. Also, in the Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed (document 6) Lincoln went on a steam boat with Joshua F. Speed. They witnessed slaves shackled together on the boat and that memory continues to torment Lincoln. He does not believe in what they do to the slaves. They take them away from their families, to go work and this memory haunts Lincoln, especially since he can not do or say anything and must keep it