The Reluctant Emancipator

“The Reluctant Emancipator”
Throughout history, it has been taught that Abraham Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator” who wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, and was responsible for the end of slavery. Although Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery, he was not at all responsible for the end of its execution. He wrote the Emancipation Proclamation only to help better the chances of the Union winning the civil war. Because of these facts and more, I believe Lincoln was not the “Great Emancipator” but the “Reluctant” one.
Even before the document that was supposedly to terminate slavery, Lincoln had a strong belief that African Americans and Whites could not live together civilly. He believed that blacks had suffered very greatly, mainly because of the presence of white Americans, but at the same time, Whites had also suffered from the presence of blacks too. (Mullane, 215) Lincoln did many studies to see if he could indeed send blacks back to Africa where some ...