The President and the Prophet

The abolition of slavery in the United States appears in retrospect so inevitable that it is difficult to recall how unlikely it seemed as late as 1860, the year of Abraham Lincoln's election as President. Slaveowners had pretty much controlled the national government since its inception. The 4 million slaves formed by far the country's largest concentration of property (their economic worth exceeded the value of all the factories, railroads and banks in the country combined). Racism was deeply entrenched, in the North as well as in the South. Blacks, free as well as slave, had few rights anywhere, and abolitionists were a despised minority.

Obviously, Lincoln's election and the civil war it triggered made emancipation possible. But Lincoln campaigned for President pledging to prevent slavery's expansion into Western territories, while insisting he had no intention of interfering with the institution where it already existed. It was by no means certain when the war began that it would become a crusade to destroy slavery.

Who was responsible for the end of slavery? Over the past two decades, historians have avidly debated this question. Did the Union's initial lack of military success, the actions of blacks who, in increasing numbers, fled the plantations for Union lines and the pressure exerted by abolitionists and Radical Republicans compel a reluctant President to embrace emancipation? Or did Lincoln sagely wait until public opinion was ready and then act on a lifelong desire to see slavery abolished?

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