During a series of political debates against Stephen Douglas in Illinois in 1858, Lincoln carefully explained, “I am not nor have I ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”7 The president, later hailed as the “Great Emancipator,” made it clear that abolitionists who opposed the institution of slavery could also be antiblack and even racist. At one point Lincoln invited five black leaders to the White House to discuss a colonization plan that would send freed black people to Liberia, Haiti, or Panama.8 As we have seen,
...more
