Most historians today would not call Lincoln the "great emancipator" of the slaves. This was not always the case. Until late 1960s at high of civil rights movement, black power movement, women's movement, and women's liberation movement Lincoln was thought to be the great emancipator. But, in recent years, this has been questioned. One historian, speaking at the Civil War Institute says that "the slaves freed themselves." I believe the answer is somewhere in between and that change doesn't necessarily have to come from the president, many things happen from the working class and work from the ground up.

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Frederick Douglas had intimate knowledge of Lincoln and his interpretation was that he was a complex individual. He was unsure at the 1860 presidential election, being one of the few African Americans who could vote, if the Republican Party and Lincoln had African Americans in their best interest. The democrats argued that the Republicans were the party of the rich and the Republican argued that they were the white mans party. In a speech given in 1876, Frederick Douglas said that Lincoln treated him like a man and did not let him feel like there was any difference in the color of their skin. Although he referred to him as a "remarkable man," he also believed that Lincoln could have and should have done more for African American freedom.

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African American historian W.E.B. Du Bois pointed out, that Lincoln wasn't culturally refined. Essentially he was "white trash." Lincoln would often times say words that you wouldn't want to repeat around people he had no business saying them around and he was also quite homely. Du Bois praised Lincoln's mental qualities and said that he had a capacity for growth and did grow during his presidency. He and George Washington Williams, an African American historian, also shared Douglas' belief that despite all his accomplishments, Lincoln had been half hearted in what he did for black freedom.

Also viewing Lincoln as the great emancipator is Benjamin Quarles. His book, Lincoln and the Negro reaffirmed Lincoln as the great emancipator. Quarles accepted as true the story of Lincoln vowing to free the slaves if he got the change after viewing the practice of slavery in New Orleans. Quarles became the promoter of folk-lore, using no evidence that the story of Lincoln actually took place. It's not factual because there is no documentation of it ever happening.

Lincoln had told two different aspects of that same story, and he did so to benefit himself politically. Quarles almost overlooks Lincolns ambivalent attitude toward looking at blacks as an inferior race. Quarles denys that Lincoln was anti-black. In his assessment, Lincoln did not share the same sentiments towards African Americans that other historians claimed he did. He maintained that Lincolns doctrine was that "all men are created equal." Quarles says this is why Lincoln is great, because he believed that all men are created equal, and when history gave him the change to act upon it, he took advantage and emancipated African Americans. He calls attention to Lincolns little known actions against slavery, which he claims indicates that Lincoln was always against slavery. Lincoln also played a roll in suppressing the foreign slave trade to Washington D.C. He does acknowledge Lincolns plan to free the slaves and force them to move to Haiti and he criticize it, but he also sugar coats it saying that even some African American leaders supported this plan

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil Rights Movement

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