During the 19th century, there was a huge conflict between the South and the North in the United States on whether black slaves should be freed and given rights—despite racism being predominant in the culture and slaves being the primary source of income for many plantation owners in the South. The North wanted to limit the spread of slavery and some even wanted to abolish it completely, while the South wanted slavery to remain. This led to the Civil War, in which Lincoln was president and led the North. Abraham Lincoln has always been seen and taught in schools as responsible for abolishing slavery, yet there are many overlooked abolitionists in the 19th century such as Harriet Tubman and John Brown. Although Lincoln did help pass the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, he did not …show more content…
Black slaves who entered the military to fight for the Union have contributed to the success of the war. According to History of American Peoples, “Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty,” this was stated by Lincoln when explaining the Emancipation Proclamation which shows how his reasoning was slavery but to suppress the rebellion of the Union (Majewski, Jacobson, & Razek, 76). Although it was not Lincoln’s forefront reasoning for passing this act, it helped so many slaves be free and was a win for abolitionists, even though Lincoln’s intentions were plainly for winning the