The Real Abraham Lincoln

           

              The topic I am choosing for this re-evaluation is Abraham Lincoln, with a specific focus on him issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1^st, 1863. This subject has been taught in schools different ways, most grade schools teach one side of the story while high schools and colleges teach the other.  The grade school method takes away an essential part of the truth and reasoning why the Emancipation Proclamation was even created. They make it seem like the most dominating reason why it was issued was because people began to realize that slavery was morally wrong, which is only partly true. I can understand why grade schools would want to teach positive morals to their pupils, but a teacher can never teach positive morals through lying. It is possible that grade schools believe that the hard truth would discourage kids and make them feel less equal to others in their class, but the entire issue of slavery deals with inequality so at some point they are going to learn the truth about the past.

            The way that high schools and colleges teach the reason for the creation of the Emancipation Proclamation is the way it should be taught universally. It is taught that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves as a strategic move by the Union to influence the slaves to flee the South. This would have completely stopped the production of cotton if all the slaves left which would crush the South’s economy, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, the slaves that left gave the Union the extra little push it needed to oust the Confederates and place America in its rightful state. Therefore, it should be taught that the Emancipation Proclamation was created to be a desperate move to save the Union. Abraham Lincoln didn’t hate slavery, he just didn’t want it moving West as people began to settle in California, which was the underlying cause for the Civil War. He thought that if there was no slavery, then there would be no reason to fight a war. Of course, if the Confederates won slavery would have taken over all of America, but the Union prevailed and Abraham Lincoln is still viewed as a savior and a militant genius.