The Lincoln Administration Pursuit of Freedom Essay -- essays research

The Lincoln Administration Pursuit of FreedomThere are many ways to describe what license is in fact Websters dictionary offers nine different explanations of what the word means. A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference, is one of the most ubiquitous definitions. There are many ways to describe independence and American history has pictured it in very contradictory manners. In the late 1700s, it was very obvious that Americas forefathers sought freedom as they based their revolution on the principal of emancipation scarcely it was only a short while later that the freedoms of others within the country were being inhibited by slavery. Slavery inhibits accomplished liberties and in a land of equal opportunity, such as America, needed to be removed. Freedom and slavery have always been closely related but the issues that surround the terms have been handled very differently by the leaders of the nation. Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth presi dent of the USA, is a key figure against the oppression of passel and an activist in the struggle to remove slavery and gain freedom for all. Freedom is an antonym of slavery. After years of fighting to gain independence and essentially freedom from the King of England, America became a slave endorsing entity. This era of American history is a bit of a paradox, why would people fight so potent for justice just to take away the freedoms of another people? In the United States, Slavery existed primarily in the southern states. In 1800, there were roughly 900,000 slaves in the U.S. only 40,000 of which were in the Northern states. It was in the south where large plantation owners bought people to perform grueling manual labor. These dark skinned people were literally worked to death on many occasions and rarely saw any form of retribution from their owners. Men, women and children alike had their civil liberties ripped from them at birth and were do by like misused animals for al l of their lives. some people believed that this treatment of African Americans was inhumane but sadly did not act to stop the brutal imprisonment. Many of societys earliest leaders regarded slavery as evil and inconsistent with the principles of the Declaration of Independence. However they hesitated to take political action to prohibit the enslaving of people because many southerners saw the ownership of slaves was... ...tizens all within its borders. The suppression of one persons rights while another is allowed to take advantage of those lost liberties no longer has a place in this world. Abraham Lincoln ensured an undivided country and abolished its reason for separation by reinstating the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln guaranteed freedom and justice to all of this countrys citizens as his forefathers who led the American Revolution had intended.       Works CitedCox, LaWanda C. Fenlason. Lincoln and black freedom a study in pres idential leadership. Columbia, S.C. University of South Carolina Press, 1981.Liberty," Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Microsoft Corporation. 1993-1998Lincoln, Abraham," Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Microsoft Corporation. 1993-1998Slavery in the United States. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Microsoft Corporation. 1993-1998The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Fourth EditionHoughton Mifflin fellowship 2000Wightman Richard Fox, and James T. Kloppenberg, eds. A Companion to AmericanThought. Cambridge, Mass. Blackwell Publishers, 1995.