Rights

Lincoln argued that the Civil War was not possible and that the Confederate States seceding from the Union was  impossible on the grounds that he felt that it was impossible to leave the Union. Fighting against an oppressive leadership and breaking free to form your own government. Sounds familiar right. This is what the South felt they were doing and it is exactly what the original 13 colonies did when they created the United States of America. Is Lincoln's faith in the Union blinding him from the fact that at any point a government can be toppled, just as was done with the American Revolution?

Freedom= Oppression?

Something very bizarre about the Civil War to me is that the battle is being fought by the South on hypocritical terms. The South wishes to be free from the Union in order to further oppress and enslave the African Americans. Does it seem likely that at least some of the Confederates found this to be an odd situation?

Change

Throughout the semester, we have read about Lincoln and realized some very important things about him. First, he was extremely against fighting and war. As we saw, when he was confronted with duels and other things of that nature, he turned them down in most cases. What is extremely ironic is that he wound up conducting the American Civil War, the bloodiest battle ever to be fought on American soil. Does this mean that the issues over preserving the Union were much deeper issues for Lincoln and therefore justified going to war?

England's Support

Last week in class we discussed the idea that if England had supported the Confederacy in the war,then they would have made a fool of themselves. This is entirely due to the fact that they had outlawed the slave trade there years before and if they ended up supporting the South, who's primary purpose was keeping slavery going in the United States, they would have looked ridiculous. Now the question I pose is, if England had supported the South, would there have been any stipulations, such as, they would demand gradual emancipation or eventual outlawing of slavery? Is there any signs of this in history?

Labor

The United States was not the only country to have slaves. However, a question comes to mind.Places where African Americans are not used for labor; such as on plantations, places where they are viewed in degrading terms? Or is it the same where ever slavery was?

Slavery

In the United States, slavery was an entirely different system then the world had ever seen. Sure, the United States wasn't the largest recipients of slaves during the Atlantic Slave Trade, however, their impact was much more monumental. In the US, slavery became more of a lifestyle, than an economic system. Of course it was still done for profit, but slavery was taken to much more bloody extremes in the United States than in the rest of the world. Could one argue that this is the reason that it lasted so long here compared to elsewhere?

Learning

After reading through various sources on Lincoln, we have come to learn that Abraham Lincoln had a thirst for knowledge and whenever he didn't know something, he did whatever possible to teach himself said topic. For example, with the civil war full in swing, Lincoln was realizing that he had no real military knowledge and wanted to become more familiar with the art of war. He began reading books about war strategies. He soon realized that reading a book on how to fight a war was extremely different then actually fighting the war. Is it safe to assume that for this situation hands on experience is of more value?