Generations of Americans have debated the meaning of Abraham Lincoln's views on race and slavery. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation and supported a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery. This book includes a complete collection of Lincoln's important writings on both race and slavery.

List of Illustrations xiii Acknowledgments xv Abraham Lincoln on Race and Slavery Henry Louis Gates, Jr. xvii Chapter 1: Protest in Illinois Legislature on Slavery March 3, 1837 1 Chapter 2: Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Sringfield, January 27, 1838 3 Chapter 3: AL to Mary Seed September 27, 1841 9 Chapter 4: Temperance Address February 22, 1842 11 Chapter 5: AL to Williamson Durley October 3, 1845 16 Chapter 6: AL to Josephus Hewett February 13, 1848 20 Chapter 7: Seech at Worcester, Massachusetts September 12, 1848 23 Chapter 8: Remarks and Resolution Introduced in United tates House of Representatives Concerning Aolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia January 10, 1849 26 Chapter 9: Eulogy on Henry Clay& January 4, 1855, Outline for Seech to the Colonization Society July 6, 1852 31 Chapter 10: Hon. A. Lincoln's Address, Before the Sringfield Scott Club, in Reply to Judge Douglas' Richmond Seech August 14 and 26, 1852 43 Chapter 11: Fragments on Slavery July 1, 1854 48 Chapter 12: Speech at Bloomington, Illinois September 12, 1854 51 Chapter 13: Speech at Peoria, October 16, 1854 56 Chapter 14: AL to Ichabod Codding November 27, 1854 69 Chapter 15: AL to Oen Lovejoy August 11, 1855 71 Chapter 16: AL to George Robertson August 15, 1855 73 Chapter 17: AL to Joshua F. Speed August 24, 1855 77 Chapter 18: Speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan August 27, 1856 84 Chapter 19: AL to Newton Deming and George P. Strong May 25, 1857 90 Chapter 20: Speech at Sringfield, Illinois June 26, 1857 92 Chapter 21: A House Divided, Speech at Sringfield, Illinois June 16, 1858 103 Chapter 22: to John L. Scripps June 23, 1858 107 Chapter 23: Fragment on the Struggle Against Slavery July, 1858 109 Chapter 24: Speech at Chicago, Illinois July 10, 1858 111 Chapter 25: Speech at Sringfield, July 17, 1858 119 Chapter 26: Speech at Lewistown, August 17, 1858 124 Chapter 27: First Debate ith Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois August 21, 1858 127 Chapter 28: Second at Freeport Illinois August 27, 1858 137 Chapter 29: Speech at Carlinville, Illinois August 31, 1858 143 Chapter 30: at Clinton, Illinois September 2, 1858 149 Chapter 31: Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois September 11, 1858 152 Chapter 32: Fourth Debate ith Stephen A. Douglas September 18, 1858 156 Chapter 33: Fragment on Pro-slavery Theology October 1, 1858? 160 Chapter 34: Seventh and Last Debate with Stephen A. Douglasat Alton, Illinois, & October 18, 1858, AL to James N. Brown October 15, 1858 163 Chapter 35: to Salmon P. Chase June 9, 1859 174 Chapter 36: Speech at Columbus, Ohio September 16, 1859 177 Chapter 37: Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio September 17, 1859 187 Chapter 38: Fragment on Free Labor September 17, 1859 191 Chapter 39: Address at the Cooper Institute, New York City February 27, 1860 193 Chapter 40: Speech at Hartford, Connecticut March 5, 1860 202 Chapter 41: AL to John A. Gilmer December 15, 1860 210 Chapter 42: First Inaugural Address March 4, 1861 214 Chapter 43: AL to Orville H. Browning September 22, 1861 218 Chapter 44: Message to Congress March 6, 1862 222 Chapter 45: AL to James A. McDougall March 14, 1862 225 Chapter 46: AL to Horace Greeley & Aril 16, 1862, Message to Congress March 24, 1862 228 Chapter 47: Appeal to Border State Representatives to Favor Compensated Eancipation July 12, 1862 231 Chapter 48: Address on Colonization to a Deputation of Negroes August 14, 1862 235 Chapter 49: AL to Horace Greeley August 22, 1862 242 Chapter 50: Reply to Eancipation Memorial Presented by Chicago Christians of All Denominations September 13, 1862 245 Chapter 51: Preliminary Proclamation September 22, 1862 250 Chapter 52: Annual Message to Congress December 1, 1862 255 Chapter 53: Eancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863 265 Chapter 54: AL to AndrewJohnson March 26, 1863 270 Chapter 55: Resolution on Slavery April 15, 1863 272 Chapter 56: AL to John M. Schofield June 22, 1863 274 Chapter 57: Order of Retaliation July 30, 1863 276 Chapter 58: AL to Nathaniel P. Banks August 5, 1863 279 Chapter 59: AL to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant August 9, 1863 282 Chapter 60: AL to James C. Conkling August 26, 1863 284 Chapter 61: Fragment August 26, 1863 290 Chapter 62: Annual Message to Congress December 8, 1863 292 Chapter 63: Reply to Nework Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association March 21, 1864 295 Chapter 64: AL to Albert G. Hodges April 4, 1864 298 Chapter 65: AL to Edwin M. Stanton May 17, 1864 302 Chapter 66: Interviewith Alexander W. Randall and Joseph T. Mills August 18, 1864 305 Chapter 67: Resolution Submitting the Thirteenth Aendmentto the States February 1, 1865 308 Chapter 68: Second Inaugural Address March 4, 1865 310 Chapter 69: Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment March 17, 1865 313 Chapter 70: Last Public Address April 11, 1865 316 Appendix: Lincoln, Race, and Humor 321 Index 329

"Gates dispenses his lessons respectably. For the most part, he places Lincoln correctly in these different groups and along these different measures, even though it requires conceding that Lincoln fell far short of our own conceptions of justice and humanity. Amid the current bicentennial emoting, it is refreshing to read an evaluation of Lincoln that refuses, as Gates writes, to 'romanticize him as the first American president completely to transcend race and racism.'"--Sean Wilentz, New Republic "Abraham Lincoln is the most analyzed and written about human being in the history of the United States. In the last two years, more than a dozen works have appeared investigating his actions, attitudes, and speeches. Only a very brave or very foolish person, therefore, would attempt another volume on 'Old Abe.' Fortunately, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and his coeditor, Donald Yacovone, are the former rather than the latter, and their book, Lincoln on Race and Slavery will be an honored addition to libraries of historians and general readers alike."--Martin Hardeman, H-Net Reviews

"An essential volume for anyone who knows Lincoln or, more crucially, thinks he knows Lincoln, this eye-opening collection—so carefully selected, judiciously edited, and wisely assembled—fully evokes the complexities of the mid-nineteenth century and its most famous American personality. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s piercing introduction is a dazzling piece of original, provocative, and in the end deeply felt scholarship."—Harold Holzer, cochairman of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission"How amazing that after 150 years, we as Americans still look back to Abraham Lincoln, above all, for guidance in our national dilemmas! Not that Lincoln provides us with easy answers—something that Henry Louis Gates, Jr., shows us in this shrewd and thoughtful selection of Lincoln's writings on our longest-bleeding national dilemmas. Frederick Douglass once spoke of Lincoln's words as 'a sacred effort.' Gates's anthology of Lincoln's words is, likewise, a sacred—and a sane and balanced—effort to introduce us to the greatest American's greatest words on our greatest problems."—Allen C. Guelzo, author of Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America"In Lincoln on Race and Slavery, the distinguished historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has collected and ably edited all of Lincoln's public and private statements on the greatest issue of nineteenth-century American history, which he introduces with a luminous essay. This is an important book that belongs in the library of every serious student of the American Civil War."—David Herbert Donald, author of Lincoln"Of all the great Lincolnian questions, perhaps the most vexed and interesting is his evolving attitudes about race, slavery, and the future of African Americans after abolition. In his new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., presents vital evidence for the reader's judgment. Just as important, in his introduction he offers a pained, exact, careful, and persuasive account of how Lincoln's economic faith in free labor underlay his opposition to slavery—but also of how that narrow faith in the free market grew over time to become a moral position of compassion and courage. For all those who wish to believe in the capacity of public men to change their views through the force of moral argument, this book will be one of the most cheering of this Lincoln year."—Adam Gopnik, author of Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life"Lincoln on Race and Slavery is a brilliant collection of historical documents that set a critical context for the American Civil War era. Its introduction is a striking and particularly valuable contribution to the 2009 bicentennial year commemoration of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Donald Yacovone provide some of Lincoln's most powerful words to help us understand this most significant period of the nation's history and to more fully appreciate its legacy for America's present."—James Oliver Horton, coauthor of Slavery and the Making of America"Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Donald Yacovone have produced an invaluable and timely book, indispensable for anyone interested in race relations in the United States. Gates's introductory essay is simply brilliant, the best essay there is on Lincoln's views of race and slavery. Beautifully written and penetrating in its insights, it is a fitting counterpart to Lincoln's own words on these vexed subjects."—John Stauffer, author of Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln"Frederick Douglass once spoke of Lincoln's words as 'a sacred effort.' Gates's anthology of Lincoln's words is, likewise, a sacred—and a sane and balanced—effort to introduce us to the greatest American's greatest words on our greatest problems."—Allen C. Guelzo, author of Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America