As I read the USA Today's Newspaper article dated Friday, February 13, 2009 in celebration and excitement surrounding of the commerancement of Abraham Lincoln's 200th Birthday, I took reflection on the article's statement of Abraham Lincoln as "America's Great Emancipator". Abraham Lincoln was America's first Republican President in 1860 who is known for his introduction of the Emancipation Proclaimation, as well as, leading the American victory in the American Civil War.
In learning throughout my elementary education the imporatance of Abraham Lincoln to the abolishment of Slavery in America and the creation of the Thirteenth to the Constitution, I was always informed Abraham Lincoln was always out right against slavery and had the entire purpose as President to free the slaves within the south. However as an adult, upon my own research into African-American history, I found this fact to be otherwise.
The truth is that Abraham Lincoln was for whatever action necessary to preserve and protect the Union. Even throughout his campaign to presidency in 1859, Abraham Lincoln noted his whole purpose as president would be to protect and secure the rights, actions and needs of the Union.
In preserving those ideologies of the Union, as Abraham Lincoln won over the presidency in 1860, he began to note Union members-who were also white, wage earing workers could not get a wage earning job in the south because many southern employees were using free labor or slaves. This posed a serious problem to Union workers who needed jobs and Abraham Lincoln believed would later pose a more serious problem to the economic statue of the south. Therefore, Abraham Lincoln saw the solution as freeing the southern slaves as a means of protecting the economic growth of his Union laborors.
Hence, the Emancipation Proclaimation.
So as we celebrate President Lincoln's 200th birthday, we should include in rememberance of black history month the importance the underlying truth behind how the Emancipation Proclaimation came about.