Was Abraham Lincoln A White Supremacist?

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   vveaseyposted 8 years ago

   Was Abraham Lincoln A White Supremacist?
   
   Abraham Lincoln On White Superiority Over Black People
   "I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; ........I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."
   Abraham Lincoln Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois,
   
   
   

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   Tusitala Tomposted 8 years ago

   Some one must have been very good a taking down 'Short Hand' Writing!  They certainly didn't have electronic recording machines in those days...
   How do we know this is an actual statement; words recorded EXACTLY as stated here.
   
   What we do know is that Linsoln found the concept of slavery abhorrent to the point that there was a civil war fought over the issue and he certainly wasn't on the side of the slavers.

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      vveaseyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Research this yourself. He didn't believe in slavery. Doesn't logically follow he didn't believe white people weren't superior to black people as his speech shows.The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, pp. 145-146

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   tamarawilhiteposted 8 years ago

   You cannot judge people generations ago by the standards of today.
   For example, the New Testament gave women significant standing compared to Roman society and called for better treatment of slaves than was the social norm. By today's standards, it is woefully inadequate.
   
   The irony is that social standards are changing even faster in the past 40 years than they did in the prior 400.
   
   Should students of the future protest a Barack Obama library because he opposed same-sex marriage until he "evolved" -  after he won his second run for the White House and no longer had to face the voters? Or transgenderism going from verboten ten years ago to classic feminist icons getting no platformed for saying a man should have been a woman for at least a year before getting a women's award?

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      vveaseyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Good points. But would you judge Hitler as good or bad? Or Al Capone and John Dillinger as good? Since we have socially evolved, that's why we do, can and should judge them by today's standards. Your examples show, that how things change, get better!

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