Edna Greene Medford Interview: Abraham Lincoln's Evolving Views on Slavery
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2022
- Historian Edna Greene Medford discusses family separation among enslaved people, Abraham Lincoln’s difficult childhood and his southern roots. Medford examines the Emancipation Proclamation’s impact and its promise of freedom.
Edna Greene Medford was educated at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia, the University of Illinois Urbana, and the University of Maryland College Park, where she received her PhD in United States history. She is currently a professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University where she has also served as chair of the Department. Specializing in nineteenth-century African-American history, she teaches courses in the Jacksonian Era, Civil War and Reconstruction, and African-American History to 1877. Medford has served as the Director for History of New York’s African Burial Ground Project and edited the volume Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the Diaspora. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on African Americans, especially during the era of the Civil War. Her books include Lincoln and Emancipation (2015). She was the 2009 special bicentennial recipient of the Order of Lincoln, an award given by the state of Illinois, for her scholarship on the president.
The Apple TV+ series "Lincoln's Dilemma," features insights from journalists, educators and scholars, as well as rare archival materials, that offer a more nuanced look into the life of the Great Emancipator. Set against the background of the Civil War, "Lincoln's Dilemma" also gives voice to the narratives of enslaved people, shaping a more complete view of an America divided over issues including economy, race and humanity, and underscoring Lincoln's battle to save the country, no matter the cost. The series is narrated by award-winning actor Jeffrey Wright ("Angels in America") and features the voices of actor Bill Camp ("The Night Of") as Lincoln and Leslie Odom Jr. ("Hamilton") as Frederick Douglas.
To view the entire series please visit:
tv.apple.com/us/show/lincolns...
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Edna Greene Medford, Historian, Howard University
Interview Date: December 1, 2020
Interviewed by: Jackie Olive and Barak Goodman
© Apple Video Programming, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
#EdnaGreeneMedford #kunhardtfilmfoundation - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
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Prof Medford was my professor at Howard in 19---- and left such an impact on my life that when this randomly came across my timeline I shouted to my husband THAT MY PROFESSOR!!! I am never not awed by her knowledge.
I feel that. Inspired and energized by her illumination of the resistance and persistence.
WOW!! You were so lucky!!
Another DEI beneficiary. This idiotic diatribe was what I'd expect from a 15 year old. Literally anyone could come up with this without having read a book in their lives. Her entire schtick is to incite hatred not to inform.
Don't you glorify your ancestors for inciting hatred lol.
@@Lou-mr7kf I don't agree. She's firmly setting the record straight on many issues, and doing it in an upbeat fashion. I find her delightful.
How could people be so ugly and say in the same breath that they have a love for a God? I've never gotten that. she brought me to tears. This never be forgotten, and public schools need to be fixed and run by EDUCATORS.
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Humans are a complex and flawed species. Your question could be posed to a myriad of events both historical and contemporary on every continent. Read world history, read any international newspaper on any day. We humans are a wicked lot!
Yeah, it's a head scratcher. How could slave holders read the Bible every night and walk right past the Golden Rule and "Love Thy Neighbor"? One reason may be that slavery was an institution in the times of the Roman Empire. They used Scripture to justify slavery.
@@user-fq4yz5ek3r .....because they possibly changed certain portions of the Bible.....perhaps.
@@user-fq4yz5ek3r
If you want the entire story,
study the Bible and you’ll have all your questions answered, eventually.
Man hasn’t changed, emotionally,
in over 2,000 years.
Excellent! I love history with facts and it should be taught in schools!
Then you would be better informed by Thomas Sowell.
@billhillwill he is a Marxist.
This should be playing continuously at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C.
Why
@@reasonforliving3174 because it is informative
Thank you for this in depth and eloquent account.
Absolutely outstanding! This is the best interview I have ever heard on the subject of Lincoln. Thank you !
More than a great deal of tension after the war, there was an intensifying issue of domestic terrorism against Black peoples.
Educated and thoughtful speaker.
This is a fantastic explanation of one of the most consequential times in recorded human-- not just American history. There have been and continue to be some who would rather none of us would hear. As always, thank you PBS.
Yes thank you for all your propaganda you have rewritten our HIS story to learn in a way that will keep us down and dumb and racist. Thank you
@@ajcbng8289 I find her claim that northern whites were only differentiated by economy interest a bit insulting to the members of the abolitionist movement. If you read "America's Unfinished Revolution" about Reconstruction, there are innumerable passages that convey their passionate hatred of slavery, in letters they wrote, and in speeches they gave in Congress or in their campaigns, or editorial letters etc. I think her characterization is a bit simplistic and a bit too cynical
@@jugo1944 I'm sure there were some of both sentiments, to be sure.
This entire talk should be taught to every person in this fricken country. I am 62 just learning a lot of this. Heartbreaking. I feel compassion, empathy sadness and disappointment in my white ancestors! Not guilt! I feel that we as a country owe many of these People’s descendants but for people to be afraid to teach their kids this because it makes white guilt???!!!!! Fuk that! It’s empathy those kids feel! The parents obviously don’t. Sad. 🙏🙏🕊️
EDNA GREENE THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH FOR YOUR *PROFOUND WISDOM*...YOUR BEAUTIFUL GENEROSITY, YOU MAGNIFICENT BRILLIANCE, YOUR VAST STORE OF KNOWLEDGE! I am incredibly grateful to you! Anyone who listens to you with the genuine intent of learning will be infinitely more intelligent, more informed, and more aware than they/we were before your brilliant teachings here! Also THANK YOU KUNHARDT FILM FOUNDATION FOR BRINGING Ms. GREENE'S MAGNIFICENT INTERVIEW TO US HERE! YOU ARE MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER MORE INFORMED, INTELLIGENT PLACE...ONE INTERVIEW AT A TIME!
LOVE LOVE LOVE...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Thank you!
Love her excellence….education is a must…..thank you, Edna…!
We agree!
Edna Greene - I’m just amazed at how she tells this story. We need more people like her.
This is history not a story! 😞
What an excellent story teller. Just excellent.
Thank you Dr. Medford for your excellent talk about a complex man. Lincoln was a man, not a saint, and it is so impressive for him, as you said, to have overcome his upbringing and original beliefs and to do the right thing.
Too bad she has never actually done research on her own because he is far more interesting that is why it is difficult info to get. Our education system was designed by the Rockefellars so once you understand that then you know they had an agenda for creating our edu system right? Or are they just saints? Wake up people
Wonderful, extremely knowledgeable, a pleasure to listen to. I learned so much!
Her book is called "Lincoln & Emancipation". I'll be getting this very soon off of Amazon.
Thanks for the title.Me too.💯
I appreciate her nuanced view of Lincoln. I'd never heard him called, "a son of the South", which is something to think about. And perhaps that is why he assumed that the Southerners felt as he did about the Union and would not leave it (during the Secession Winter of 1860-1). She has a lowkey manner (which I like) and the more I listen, the more I appreciate her brilliant insights.
Love Edna Greene Medford!
educating the masses on not only how we separated families, disregarded the rights of human beings, and divided man on the basis of color for free labor/slavery; but, also how we are becoming more aware of these atrocious practices.
In hopes in practicing civility as in maintaining one’s’ own ethical core values built solely on mutual forgiveness, compassionate understanding and respectful appreciation as equals.
Most all humans are worthy of appreciation, acceptance and respect and are most deserving as well as freely inclusive of courteous interactions, friendships and respectful or loving interactions and/or intimate bonding relationships.
Today, division is losing the internal battle, of hate and blame. Our past is also full of regret, therefore we are taking a different path as we become more humbled, informed and enlightened.
I truly believe more and more people feel that we are as one-human beings with a heart of forgiveness. Together wanting to rise above the learned behaviors of abuse, misery and suffering.
Thank you so very much Ms. Edna Greene for speaking so eloquently on our past. ✨🕊❤️🕊✨
Yes, we all do have a reason for living.
ETA🌹
Amen
Dr. Edna, you are an absolute American treasure. Thank you for expanding my knowledge about slavery, the Civil War, Abe Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.
We were impressed as well!
Wow, this is excellent!!!!
She is speaking nothing but
HISTORICAL
FACTS!
🇺🇲🗽💙24
I was taking a nap when this came up on my feed. This is an ASTOUNDING interview that I will listen to again!
wow...relly needed AMERICAN DISCOURSE...THANK YOU SO MUCH
thank you edna greene
Dr.Edna Greene
This was a treat. Thank you so much.
16:03 the artifacts of this type of Chattel slavery are on display at the Smithsonian African American History museum. They have exhibits of newspaper clippings and ads of humans “for sale” like they are cars. They included detailed body descriptions of scratches, cuts, and health history e.g. fertility status that deeply objectified these people. It hits you and it hits you hard like I wanted the earth to swallow me whole for the deep anger I felt that we let humans do this to each other…for money.
It's called the NFL.
Excellent commentary. Thank you.
This is a wonderful and educational podcast. I enjoyed listening to you Dr Edna
Our social media and broadcast media are filled with characters who manipulate words and symbols, with very little basic knowledge. It is a pleasure to listen to a trained historian who can talk in a meaningful and nuanced way and, thankfully, there are many such people on TH-cam.
I so appreciate Edna Greene Medford's sharing her knowledge of history and her analysis of Lincoln and African Americans hopes & dreams. Thank you, Ms Greene and Kunhardt Film Foundation. This was more than wonderful and I hope to share it with others.
Incredibly cool. Thank you.
Well said!!
Frederick Douglass, was of particular interest to me having been Educated at an Historic Royal Boarding School, in N. Ireland (Alum inc. O. Wilde, S. Beckett...)! So, learning about his Mural, and that the same "Slavers" had just changed the term "Slavery", to "Indentured Servant"! The Irish, Chinese, East Indians were but a few of these "not Slaves" this insidious trick an example of which continues to date, was re-naming "Bribery" to "Lobbying"! Unfortunately, It does continue up to today,🙏 Edna! Wonderful eloquent delivery!🕉
What a great history lesson...all people have feet of clay...those that don't get pushed over are the special ones given a moment to act...this should be a history taught...
Ms. Greene is a national treasure. I am always amazed at how twisted the history we are taught in school, (I do believe in Public education, need to be taught critical thinking instead of regurgitating “facts” to pass tests), and the reality of the life for people of color who were enslaved by people who believed their religion gave them dominion over anything they came in contact with.
Sadly, the treatment of the past is still the treatment of the current times. What white people never get is that the I’ll treatment, the inhumane treatment of people of color continues to this day. For me, this is the hardest fact to swallow, that the ignorance of millennia, of thousands of years of people doing this to each other and with all of the religions and all of the organizations which are working to reverse this mistreatment, is that so many people of color continue to be assassinated. To be denied even their day in court, these facts bring me to tears. They don’t stop me from working to bring justice, just need to keep sunglasses handy🙏🏿💗🍄
A truly interesting, knowledgeable and beautifully human. Thank you so much for your insightful lecture.
I started watching this by chance because it came up in my feed. I kept watching because it is absolutely fascinating. I really like the format of the different sections. Thank you Professor Medford.
Exceptional in your analysis 🙌🏽I learned so much ❤
The horrors of it are sickening and paralyzing ~. Thank you for sharing this conversation. Our true history must be taught in school and outside of school.
This is helping me with my family history and how to frame the book I plan to write about it.
Thank you Ms. Edna Greene Medford!
Enlightening. Thank you.
Best commentator ever, insightful historian as few others, what a gift.
Can I try an Amen? Wonderful
Exceptional video - incredible history delivered beautifully. Thank you so much for this. Every single person in America should watch this, if not the world.
Thank you. Watching from Alaska.
♥️Well done and clearly understand feeling. Humans have had slaves since their existence. It is well mentioned in old testament as being the norm. (It was the norm)
Fortunately as humans progress we learn moral behaviors and practices.Our mindset has evolved to recognize life of living great and small deserves respect. Compassion and empathy are more freely expressed.
This was just so interesting…. What a very knowledgable lady…. Thank you so much Dr Medford, what an amazing lady.
Absolutely captivating. The way of this narrative about real events is so clear and so perfect, you are completely immersed in that story and you can visualise what happened as you listen completely mesmerized. Thank you so much.
Edna Greene Medford , done a excellent job of appeasing those who created this time in history.
Exactly 💯 I wish she would go back to first writings of slavery coming to America. Would also like reference to definition of American by Websters dictionary in 1828, 1828. So before 1828 everyone knew an American was copper colored. Until they changed the books and created a new story to steal everything. Then owners don't know who they are.
🗽⚖🗽👍🎯💯Thank you one million times.👏👏👏
Brilliant, in-depth presentation!
Thank you! Very enlightening. Context: as a high school student in the 60's in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, the central issues of that time ( the civil rights movement, the Cuban missile crisis and the Viet Nam war ) were arm's length issues in which, as students, we had no direct involvement. In our school of 1,500 students, only one was black. The historic events relevant to our area that received particular attention related to the war of 1812, an event that most American students would be unfamiliar with. It is only in the last 10 years that I have learned that Harriet Tubman is a part of St. Catharines history.
So, I am most appreciative of Dr. Medford's analysis and eloquent account. Further to her account of Lincoln's evolving position on slavery, it might be helpful to recognize those three runaway slaves that fled to Fort Monroe on the day that Virginia seceded from the Union. Indeed, perhaps Sheppard Mallory, Howard Townsend and Frank Baker should be celebrated along with Benjamin Butler for triggering the Confiscation Acts that eventually led to the Emancipation Act.
B 🔥💯✊🏿 thank you for another amazing broadcast “504”
Her proper name is: Professor, Dr. Edna Green Medford. She's clearly worthy of being referenced and titled as such. #BlackExcellence 👩🏽🎓💫📚💡🎖🏆
@mosiceo3142 Thank you for that observation. If you do not respect her name. Then, you don't respect what she is saying. I notice that they like the way she deliver the news about American slavery. Put some respect on her name.
I took Black American History and Black Political Power in college in 1970 but I never learned about the Black Wall Street which existed in Greenwood, a subdivision outside of Tulsa Oklahoma until after 2000 AD.
I will listen to this at least once a week! Very interesting, thanks so much!
(CLAP!) (CLAP!) (CLAP!) (CLAP!) (CLAP!!!) [standing ovation!)
Excellent understanding !
Right out of the gate saying that the North went to war because “They already made their money” doesn’t sound like a great reason to go to war over it.
“Well, I’m rich now, guess I should fight to free slaves because… I have nothing better to do? Even though I’m still technically benefitting from southern slavery.”
Even fighting to end slavery we still need to be reminded we all have no real respect for each other it seems
Every time I step away from TH-cam, while playing another video, this interview is the next thing that autoplays. I mean, around 30 times. What the heck is going on? Why does this one interview keep coming up over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again?
Wonderful woman!
Thankyou very much for your historical perspective of how Africans were really depicted by a extremely hostile nation, people, society..!🙏🏿
show this to ron de santis!!!!!
Exactly my thought
As a recent African immigrant to the US, after listening to Mrs Edna Greene, I have even more respect, reverence for our African-Americans fore-Uncles and fore-Aunts. It really irritates me when I see some African, Asians, Latino immigrants talking and acting as if they enjoy all these rights and freedoms here, only because of their own merit. Talking and acting as if we don't owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to those African-Americans who withstood the brunt of slavery, and then engaged in this brutal fight, from the Civil War (and even before), to the Civil Rights Movement.
Many of us Africans, Asians, Latinos, etc, immigrants, never had the guts to put up a fight in our own native countries to try to change the circumstances, come here and enjoy freedoms and opportunities that others earned/won with their sweat and blood, and yet, many run their mouths, repeating vile talking points.
Really annoys the ..ish out of me.
But with the Internet, things are changing. The younger generations on the Motherland have easier access to this kind of information, and are getting better educated about the history of the diaspora.
@@fowono2007 Well said. As an African American of Caribbean decent - I agree that we take so much for granted and do not give proper reverence to our African American ancestors.
Real education
Excellent lecture!
Interview not lecture but excellent nonetheless.
She has it right.
Slaves endured the most worst torcher and still do to this day just on a lesser scale
😮 no sabia algunas cosas
their ""morality" was subordinate to the wealth and power of those "chosen" to rule the "slaves" (and them). They even created a new church ("Southern" Baptist) to spread the "prosperity and power by design" doctrine.
they also knew their masters would feed them to the dogs just as eagerly as the (other) slaves.
some rebelled. Many fled. The rest were too afraid (or too toxic) to oppose their own oppressors.
HEARTBREAK
This not in full context. Many many many people of faith and religion were against slavery for moral reasons
and many used the bible to indoctrinate the slaves into Christianity to keep them submissive. What is your point?
They were the minority
Good, enlightening discussion here tho' I'd differ with Ms. Greene Medford on a few points. Very good insights into Mr. Lincoln's character & motivation(s). No, the man was NOT a God & he had his faults, but he was the right man in place at that time. History has vindicated him as he wasn't a popular Prez in his day.
😊😊
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The industrialized North where the burgeoning banking sector also reckoned that they can reduce the economic control of the economy by taking away the value of slaves, and as cuh the value of Southern land.
The fact only 4 likes let’s you know how fools despise wisdom…..!
Wisdom? Is that what you call it when people say what you hope they will say?
Dismissing the sacrifice of the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and their families on the battlefields of the Civil War with a smirk.
Imagine being so lazy and evil that you abduct and enslave hunan beings.
Yes, Africans did it first still do it in parts of Africa. Wow! 😮
@reasonforliving3174 Incorrect. Africans did not engage in chattel slavery. Chattel slavery is the unique legacy of Europe and the United States.
@@gabriellamar2683 No but they sold other African tribes and even members of their own family that were rivals for their rule ship into that system. When individual rulers died,they would bury their slaves with them. The Chinese practice chattel slavery. Thomas Sowell stated that whites couldn't even get into Africa without African assistance because they couldn't withstand malaria and had to wait until quinine powder was invented. There were parts of Africa that other Africans couldn't access let alone whites without the assistance of whites. He also stated that Africa's waterways made it difficult for big slave ships to transport slaves;so slaves were transported to smaller crafts by Africans to the larger ships. Don't forget the Arabs who enslaved Africans,made them concubines and eunuchs long before Europeans and Americans had engaged with the enslavement of Africans.This is why it's hard to trace modern blacks to ancient Islamic ancestry.
@@reasonforliving3174 they had tribal wars, no different than European wars. What race is responsible for WW1, WW2 and the Holocaust? What race literally sliced Africa up to colonize and strip of resources at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, resulting in the downfall and death of many Africans? Research and critical thinking skills: get some.
@@gabriellamar2683 You need to read one of Thomas Sowell's books. He is the leading authority on the subject. You can also watch one of his many interviews found on TH-cam.
Amazing how skin colour can dictate one’s destiny …. Sad ….cruel
How does that address the fact that it was African slave traders who sold their brothers into slavery?
@@billhillwill: Deflection much
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, Having your own autonomy doesn't mean much then? The worst part of it was losing or possibly losing family? really! What happened to empathy and a conscience? None of these people dehumanising the enslaved as animals could put themselves in these peoples shoes?
Abraham Lincoln saw these people's as animals and cared nothing for their sence of being. America, the same people who begged the world to stand back as they made their bid for freedom from the British, turned round and continued to make whole humans animals.
Once you have not the right to be your own person, regardless of economic station, what have you got? You may have had food and even a bit of money and treated so called humanely, like an animal but you didn't have you!
You were subject to your master, as is an animal. How do you claim to know God but feel at ease enough to claim to own another human being?
This is what God said was right in his eyes! Not one , not two but hundreds of years and many generations kept within this wicked system, with others looking on. The push back was slow and most who were involved did not want to see the enslaved as equals just free to be further disrespected and ill treated. Why? What manner of people could do this and live with themselves!
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Lerone Bennett on LIncoln.
People forget the seminoles wars and John horse largest slave rebellion in us history
I must add a perspective of the influence of Mary Todd Lincoln to the Kentucky "Southern" mentality that you ascribe to Abe. the Todd family were influential in Kentucky (Abe said of the family that "God's name ends in 1 d, but the Todd's end in two d's" and Abe's social ladder was to a great extent influenced by the Todd family which were haevily involved with Southern politics. In order to get their approval so his political base would continue to support him, he had to capitulate to certain demands. I think you are identifying him with the politics he used to bypass hostile political forces, succumbing to racist politics but trying to appease his Southern power base (his wife and her family, who undoubtedly were responsible for his rise to power and fame and funded his political campaign). Do not forget what influence Mary Todd must have had as well in his political stance and on slavery. She was a dynamo force not to be reckoned with easily and she had the backing of her powerful elitist family back in Kentucky. I mean to say that Mary Todd Lincoln was a force to be reckoned with, but she was so strong she could not be reckoned with and was determined to get her way. She was so threatening she was locked up in a mental institution and climbed a tree to escape, etc. It is sad that this strong woman who directly impacted the freedom of America is so often neglected in historical accounts and her influence on Lincoln politics.
What!
Interesting. We really need to teach history with more detail.
I think moreover with slavery obviously they were more “controllable “, say then trying to subject the native population to slavery, who would not so readily acquiesce to that in spite of the fact that they were made to wear starch collars and tight shoes
Ma’am. Take a breath! My goodness
Brush yourself off and dust yourself off. You get knocked down, you get back up. Give ‘em hell , Joe !
All of these slave revolts was it periodically or continuously for 400 years?
How about those “animals” that slaves were treated like? These are sentient beings with emotional lives and we use the exact same justifications to treat them barbarically as was used for enslaving and brutalizing Black people. I am not diminishing the horror of American slavery or the dignity of its victims with this remark, but asking sensitive people to extend their compassion further yet. Peace.
It finally dawned on me as I read my ancestors’ letters and wills in which they passed their slaves, along with the “other” livestock and machinery to their heirs that both slave and master were caught in a trap that neither could get out of. Like the human who has the tiger by the tail, everyone was locked into an abhorrent locked system. In other words, in spite of the hoarding of resources and lavish lifestyle, the master was ALSO his/her own victim. That takes nothing away from the hideousness of the slaves’ lives, but it does shift the image and explain why, when their economic system was threaten, the Southerners shot first rather than consider paying a wage to their workers.
@@mzmscoyoteSlave ownership was always a voluntary state. No law forced a human being to own another human being.
I tend to think it was the hordes of resources and lavish lifestyle that they felt was threatened.@@mzmscoyote
Example of
At least Mr. Lincoln WAS honest & conscientious, we could've done worse with McClellan & did with Johnson.
It would be intellectually incorrect to say that they were not inferior in THIS time.
Inferior how?
@@plantiron To many things to list.
@@8WHITROOSTER8 : If you can't even defend your point, then class yourself as inferior too
@@plantiron Ok so people still wearing loin cloths using spears are on the same level as what the whites were doing at that time?
It is entirely false that Lincoln had "evolving" views on slavery. He hated slavery and everything about it, from the time he was a young man. He worked as an indentured servant, hired out by his father. It was horrendous, tortuous, physical labor. As bad as prisoners breaking rocks in a quarry. He hated it. He overtly said that it was a form of slavery and one of the reasons he took to hating slavery.
His "evolving" views are PR statements, to win political advantage...and political advantage to end slavery. He was playing political chess and he was extremely adept at it. Everything was to win the end of slavery and support all manner of human rights. Just read his actual speeches on the floor of Congress and what he stood for.
Lincoln is estimated to have had an IQ of 160. And that means, the guy was literally the smartest guy in the room. Don't assume we can easily understand the best chess player in the room.
Frederick Douglas met with him. Walked out of that meeting and said that Lincoln had "the purest heart of any man he ever met." Which is saying that he had no evil intent whatsoever and that he was the most moral and noble man he ever met. Literally the highest praise possible. Why did Douglass and Lincoln have different views? They didn't have different views. Lincoln just used political language to win as much freedom and rights as he could possibly get through Congress.
This is not the guy you want to throw mud at. One of the rare humans who was truly extremely noble. And the list of his actual noble actions, all through his life is extreme. As an army captain his unit came upon an elderly Native American. The soldiers wanted to torment him. Lincoln said no. The soldiers resisted. Lincoln said no, they still resisted. Lincoln said to the soldiers that if anyone could out wrestle him, they could have their way. The soldiers said that was not fair, because it was known that Lincoln was stronger than all of them. Lincoln looked them dead in the eye and said, "Choose your weapon." Literally willing to put his life on the line for a random stranger, a random Native American. That is who Lincoln was. At the very extremes of human nobility. Would you be willing to put your life on the line for a homeless guy you never met? No? Well, then we are not him. And if we don't have his level of extreme nobility, the idea that we can judge him is essentially ludicrous. Not every hero in history is some kind of puffed up fraud. The real thing does exist. And he was one of the real ones.
So, no...he wasn't evolving. He was always there. But his statements were political calculations to win advantage so that he could help the most people possible. He said that he would be satisfied to win the war without ending slavery. Why? Because he had to keep the racists on track, get them to support the Union, to win the war, so that they could end slavery. He literally got all the racists in the North in line, by making statements like that. He basically manipulated them into backing the human rights struggle.
So, no...not evolving. Always there. Deep calculated political chess moves to win advantage.
Yes, it is clear that the normal historian methods of reading speeches, letters, comments by friends and professional colleagues and adversaries just fail when you get to Lincoln. Always strategic, always disciplined, always considered the possible. Maybe he would have opened to a spouse that was of a kindred mind or intent, but with Mary Todd, he could not speak about where he was versus where the polity was. I think it’s foolish to say ‘Lincoln thought this in ‘56, then this in ‘58, then this in ‘62, because of this series of statements, here is my evidence’. His speeches were always about what he wanted people to think what his bottom line, while never disclosing his bottom line. Lincoln didn’t play political poker. He was much more serious about winning.
Her position regarding the North is incorrect and painting with an extremely broad brush.
There are numerous examples that prove her to be wrong. Freewill Baptists, for example, never discriminated in admission to schools or colleges and actively opposed slavery and any teachings of white supremacy.
Hillsdale College was established during the time of slavery and never practiced or endorsed discrimination and opposed slavery and any teaching of supremacy of any human group as it conflicts with the doctrine they teach and live by.
The vast majority of people living in the North by the time of the Civil War were people who had no connection to slavery in any form. The majority of people currently resident in America not of African descent are descendants of from people who had not even arrived in America at the time of the Civil War.
But the north let slavory go and the south kept going, so try to make it sound like the really bad,not bad as south was
God in the Old Testament says slavery is okay.
Incorrect and not chattel slavery.